Photo, Quote

Photo for the day, then I promise, no more star pictures unless they're really compelling.



"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Blog | Allen AKA at 12ozPROPHET

Really, really enjoying Allen AKA's blog at 12ozPROPHET, which I was led to today from a link on
PSFK sharing some observations of drip graffiti in fashion trends. At his blog, I found awesome Nikes galore, beautiful black & white nudes (that ever-so-slightly hover towards porn, without losing their artiness), snowboarding pics, hommage to a classic Italian deli, a paella cook-out in Barcelona, and documentation of Terry Richardson's campaign of Kermit for Surpreme. In other words, the life I wish I was living. Go there immediately and soak up the goodness.

The end.

Music | Rockers International

photo by Yuri Shibuya

Seeing the above photo of Rockers International in Jamaica prompted me to do a little Googling, where I found a site with tons of excellent reggae mixes I can't tell if it's affiliated with the original label or is just a fansite, but excellent mixes nonetheless.

Photography | Yuri Shibuya

Oh, how I love the Internet. I was checking in with the sites and blogs I visit frequently, and was led from PSFK to 12ozPROPHET, dedicated to all sorts of amazing graffiti/street artists and designers, where I then discoverded the works of Yuri Shibuya. He's a Japanese photographer who has done some really fantastic work capturing the streets of New York City (with a particular emphasis on the streets and the skateboarders who roam them) as well as many other fascinating people and places worldwide. Some couple more I like, below.

Illustration | Eric Lister

Yes, I'm biased, because I went to college with Eric, but it's long overdue to give him a proper shout-out. Check out his awesome drawings at Ink for Brains or just go read his blog where lots of new sketches and such are on view.

Culture | Site | "See My Grill"

Yay! It's a "hot or not" for grills.

Illustration | Serge Seidlitz

I absolutely love the illustration of Serge Seidlitz. In looking over the vast array of drawings on his site, it's obvious many an ad agency and company does as well. Go there and enjoy lots and lots and lots of fun, detailed, quirky eye candy.

Website | Astronomy | Picture of the Day

I've been enjoying NASA's Picture of the Day site, where there's a lovely, compelling photo of our heavens posted along with some information and description. Looking at pictures of the sky always reminds me of one of my favourite poems, "Te deshojé como una rosa" by Juan Ramón Jiménez.

Te dehojé, como una rosa,
para verte tu alma,
y no la vi.

Mas todo en torno
--horizontes de tierras y de mares--,
todo, hasta el infinito,
se colmó de una esencia
inmensa y viva

(I took off petal after petal, as if you were a rose,
in order to see your soul,
and I didn't see it.

However, everything around-
horizons of fields and oceans-
everything, even what was infinite,
was filled with a perfume,
immense and living.)

Advertising | 1950s - 1970s Set

This fabulous set of 1950s - 1970s advertisements (posters, magazine ads, booklets, etc.) on Flickr is both fascinating and inspiring. Some of the ads are dated from a social perspective, but the design and much of the writing remains timeless and iconic.

Like this ad from Volkswagon ...



... I don't think its correct to use Native American stereotypes when selling cars anymore (thus the dated part of the ad) but overall the ad is striking and compelling. If I could write copy a fraction as 0s succinct, elegant, fluid and sharp as what's on this ad, I'd be a happy copywriter.

And this ad, from the Italian Art Directors' Club ...



... is not just visually a treat, but understandable to anyone, regardless of their mother tongue.

I think very often advertising creatives lose sight of the main task at hand -- communication. Deciding what needs to be said, and saying it -- through words, pictures or both -- as simply, singularly and memorably as possible.

These are old ads, but will you remember them? I will.

Blog | Ace Jet 170

I've really been enjoying design blog Ace Jet 170, especially for its devotion to found type and graphic images, all nicely collected in sets that showcase a the fine craftsmanship of these various disciplines, in all their slightly vintage glory. Such as this collection of stamps, shown above.

Blog | Ice Cream People

Yay, an entire blog dedicated to the arts and crafts of ice cream people. Like this yummy sculpture by Jenny Harada.

Art/Graffiti | Cans Festival London

Forget where I saw this link originally, but the graffiti art lovers amongst you will appreciate this excellent Flickr set of images taken at the Cans Festival in London back in April.

Site | FFFFOUND!

I must finally reference FFFFOUND!, which has become my must-visit site of the hour (practically). Users click images that they like, anywhere on the web, and you can see similar images in groupings. It's awesome!

Photography | Rui Palha

I don't know much about photographer Rui Palha, except that via a little Internet sleuthing, I learned he is an amateur photographer based in Lisbon. His photo sets on Flickr are really incredible and worth exploring, particularly this one of street portraits.

Typography | Craig Oldham

This "nudist" typeface, with its "dirty bits" pixellated, made me instantly really happy. It's very simple, true, and even the kind of thing that makes you go, "Gee, that's kind of obvious, but really not so obvious than anyone ever did it before, so maybe that makes it just a little bit genius?" The rest of the work on Mr Oldham's site is equally as provocative in its simplicity, such as Adidas goal post tape.

Design/Advertising | Petronio Associates

Petronio Associates are a design, branding, and advertising shop out of France that do absolutely beautiful work for an array of high-end fashion clients such as Prada and Chloé. Originally I think I followed a link from a site featuring their current posters for Chloé featuring -- surprise -- Chloé Sevigny, which are really cool on their own. But then as I explored the rest of their site, I was impressed by their work that is so much loftier, artsy, and inspirational than most advertising dreg that clutters our lives. How wonderful would it be to create work that truly straddles the divide between art and commerce?

Graphics | Dreamers Ink Aesthetics™

Forget where I found this originally, but I've been loving the gorgeous visual motion graphics from Dreamers Ink Aesthetics™. Of course my eye is drawn (ha) to the wonderful use of colour and balance of classic and nouveau elements, but check out their awesome logos, too.

Media | Internet | Human Calendar

Pretty novel, and makes a great widget, the Human Calendar is pretty much the internet at it's purest: quirky, innovative, and "why didn't I think of that"-ish. The more you think about the thought that went into developing something so subtle, the more impressive it gets.

Same goes for this video:

New Blogs

Two new blogs have captured my attention lately. The first blog, swissmiss, is from a Swiss designer based in NYC, who posts frequently on a range of graphic curiosities. The second is a friend-of-a-friend, someone I've heard nothing but praise and accolades from the mutual friend, but have never met. Her blog, Conversations on all Continents, is gorgeously written and inspiring -- plus it's nice to read something that gives you reason to stop and savour the language and think, rather than just being filled with fluff meant to be skimmed in a millisecond.

Design/Decor | Sleepyheads

I think these were discovered by a friend on Daily Candy. Either way, these quirky drawings (and pillows culled from them) honour the daydreamers amongst us with. Fun!

Art | Jodie Carey

I can't remember where I found the link to Jodie Carey's work, but I'm really enjoying her sculptures made of bones (albeit, not real bones – they're made of plaster). It reminds me of the bone ossuary of Kutna Hora that I visited back in 2001, only a little bit more uplifting given that they're forming optistic things wedding cakes. A nice contrast between a typically morbid object and sculptures that suggest things about life.

Design | Glueallfuk/Mapple, Elegalindus3, Jelsen Jargon, Liam Devowski

It's Monday again, and I thought I'd share some of my favourite design links today that I've been discovering throughout the past week. First up is Glueallfuk (or Mapple) who I stumbled upon while idly checking out myspace pages for various deejays/bands in NY. (Yes, exciting life.) I wrote to see if he has a website and he sent me to a collection of awesome images he's done. Not sure much more about him, but really cool nonetheless.


Next up is Elegalindus3, who I know (sort of) from ad school, and was reminded of when I excitedly showed my current art director links to the designer above. A lot of gorgeous advertising work, though I definitely enjoy the bold graphics for flyers and posters. The most up-to-date work can be found on his blog.

Another fellow ad school graduate is Jelsen Jargon, who has been doing a ton of very cool work for some big name clients, which pleases me to no end, since his stuff is definitely worth the big budgets and scope of these kinds of clients yet never loses sight of staying true to a real authenticity of great design. I'd upload a photo directly but was having trouble so you'll just have to head straight to his work to get a glimpse of the magic.


And last but definitely not least is Liam Devowski, who I discovered a while back on Urban Outfitter's blog and who has some really nice pieces of typography, art, and illustration up on his site. Looks like he's a recent graduate of Syracuse now living in San Francisco, so hopefully there will be lots of great stuff coming from this guy in the future.

Music | Electronic | Blogs

I've been planning on writing about a lot of these different groups and sites as individual posts, but they've all been piling up so I thought I might as well just do one big music post extraordinaire and get it over with. Where to begin. For my drum & bass fix, I've been going to New Mixes and Breaks Biz for lots of excellent downloads of live sets and radio programmes. New Mixes also has a ton of great mixes for other electronic genres, including an impressive amount of house and techno. Also recommended are excellent mixes on Dogs on Acid for Total Science and Danny Byrd and these Johnnyostars mixes. More locally, there are some good sounds making the pavements of New York reverberate, my favourite probably Trouble & Bass, whose bass-heavy techno-meets-electro-meets-grimey flavours are served up raw and fun. Also they have a lovely logo, which always goes far in my design-biased eyes. Mix that Serif and Sans Serif! Also have enjoyed a party here or there with Sweatshop Labor and the music dropping from Palms Out Sounds. Just when you thought everyone was a deejay, it turns out everyone's a f****n designer, too! Since New York has always seemed like the capital of the mash-up in every sense of the world -- whether you're mashing up records or just against each other on the subway -- nothing could seem more appropriate. Mash on, deesigners. Mash on.

Update: PSFK links to an article on the rise of bassline house in the UK .

Art | Sculpture | Jen Stark

Jen Stark makes gorgeous sculptures out of stacks of construction paper, most of which show the 'Coriolis Effect' in beautiful, vivid colour. My favourites are the peepholes which you can look into and see these rainbows sprawling out. Gorgeous illustrations as well -- detailed explosions of colour bursting all over the page, depicting scenes that allude to fantasy, other dimensions, and dreams. Or just a ton of acid. Either way, cool stuff.

via Reality Carnival

Photography | Chris Anthony

Discovered a link to an upcoming exhibition of Chris Anthony's latest collection, I'm the Most Normal Person I Know, on Boing Boing. Gothic themes haven't usually inspired me a great deal, but I find as I get older, I'm more attracted to them than I was as a teenager (the age it seems most usual someone falls in love with gothic imagery). Anyway, upon a little web browsing, I also discovered that he's the photographer behind the gorgeous Playstation campaign from a year ago that showed various gaming icons in a state of bloodied carnage from overuse. Even though some of his work clearly uses some photoshop techniques, they seem rather intentionally sophmoric and, I think, add to the overall effect of the photographs imaginary dreamscapes.

Updates

I've added a couple new links to the side panel of sites I've been exploring a lot lately. First is Wooster Collective, a site that focuses on a lot of street and contemporary art. The second is Urban Outfitter's blog, which I've been enjoying immensely, as it can be viewed in either chronological order or by city, and gives a nice array of exposure to everyone from graphic designers to musicians to other trends. Both worth a perusal!

Design | Commercial | Olympics

Reflecting a current trend in design (or so Jenne assures me), the efforts of the creative team at Meomi (pronounced Me-Oh-My, I suspect) have been chosen as the official mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. A different direction than that mascots from the last Olympic Games in Turin, though very reminiscent of the Cheburashka character used by the Russians as team mascot during the Turin games.

Of course Cheburashka dates from a 1950's children's book, so it goes to show that what goes around comes around in design trends, and that we can't blame the Happy Tree Friends for everything.

Media | Internet | 'Tis the Season

The holiday season works a little differently here in the Netherlands, with Sinterklaas arriving on December 5th, well in advance of Baby Jesus.

Fortunately there's the internet (or, more accurately the World Wide Web) to deliver properly-scheduled holiday cheer. Once you sift through all the crap about Black Friday, Mauve Monday, Taupe Tuesday or whatever fictitious days the media has fabricated to sell column inches, there is a treasure trove of sights and sounds on the web that show how, despite the endless marketing blitz, we haven't completely lost the plot.

On a musical note (ba-dum-bum), The Pandora Podcasts have a great piece on the origins and musical structure of many popular Christmas songs. And, if the malls don't saturate your carol capacity, there's heaps of radio stations streaming xmas music 24/7. If you do reach critical mass as quickly as I do but still want to keep the holiday spirit then there's NPR's roots-music Christmas from the World Cafe show from 2005 plus a whole lot more!

There's great art kicking around, with loads of vintage royalty-free (though not free-free) stuff to see, as well as contemporary royalty-free (and free-free with an account) at Getty.

So regardless of where you hang your kerchief or cap before settling down for a long winter's nap there should be something out there to spark that merry feeling.

Happy Holidays!

P.S. if you happen to be in Portland on December 15th you can catch the Tuba Christmas Concert apparently.

Illustration | Yuka Yamaguchi

I've been following Yuka Yamaguchi's blog, Plastique Monkey, for a while now, which I discovered totally at random googling something like "barley mushroom risotto". Discovering her quirky watercolor and pencil sketches – not to mention the totally adorable photos of her newborn son – has been a real treat. So much so that I printed the above sketch and tacked it to one of the walls of my cube for some visual stimulii.

Illustration | Dan Hillier

Discovered these fantastic Victorian engravings yesterday while looking at boing boing for a bit. Check out the rest of his interesting pieces at his site.

Design | Poetic Licence, Polyvore

There's a growing trend for these very interesting sites where you can move parts around and create your own design -- kind of like a dumbed down Photoshop/Illustrator. Poetic Licence is a UK-based shoe manufacturer whose site allows you to create your own ad for their shoes by giving you some logos, photos, words and other elements to play around with. Polyvore is a little more advanced and is an application (available both on its own site and on Facebook) where you can play around with creating your own outfits based on thousands of pre-loaded shots of clothes. The design comes in by creating your own personal dream outfits (or real outfits, I suppose) in a sleek and polished way that resembles the pages of a fashion magazine. Clearly there's major potential here for revenue if the clothes you represent pay money to be on the page; from a more personal standpoint, it affords hours of fun for any girl (or guy) who thrives on the creativity and self-expression that comes from putting clothes and design elements together -- even if they're out of your price range.

Art & Design | Doma

I'm kicking myself for missing the boat on posting the brilliant Orangina commercial and print work I was gushing over last week, so that will now be an incentive to get on it a little faster and update this blog the second I see something really cool. Like this amazing design work from Buenos Aires collective DOMA, a bunch of Argentines who started out doing street art and then morphed their talents into a lot of cool design and video work (a lot of the design work in the form of awesome toys).

Via PSFK

Advertising | Website | Orange

This site for Orange (the mobile provider in the UK) is one of THE. COOLEST. THINGS. I've seen in a long time. It just made me giddy with excitement for the cool stuff you can do on the internet and made me excited to work in advertising. In keeping with Orange's "good things should never end" strategy, it amplifies this idea in a gorgeous, fun, and shareable way. From a British agency called Poke London.

Via Adverblog.

Music | Concert Footage | Fabchannel

I was pointed in the direction of Fabchannel.com by a friend who is much more aware of these things. These things being all things Dutch, seeings how he speaks the language whereas the only Dutch anything coming out of my mouth are the salt dropjes as I spit them across the room after being lulled into a false sense of candy-security.



There's some great current concerts available for viewing, including The Handsome Furs (what up, Canada?), The Arcade Fire (holla if you're feeling me, Canucks!), You Say Party! We Say Die! (seriously, can I get a shout out here, Canada?), CSS (hola!), Duke Special (top o' the mornin'), Michael Franti and Spearhead as well as Ani Difranco (keep your arms down, hippies), and The Cold War Kids before they graduated to the big hall. There's Damien Rice and Bright Eyes if you want to look at your shoes for an extended period of time, and several year's worth of Dutch Air Guitar Championships if you wanna get your rock on :)

Advertising | Commercial | Hungary

Yes, I've been neglecting this site for far too long. Hopefully that will change soon and I will resume posting with more frequency. Anyhoo, today I was searching for photos of '90s ravers (don't ask) and stumbled up on this amazing, totally inspired commercial from Hungary.



Kind of makes you realise how a really good, simple ad can be done on the cheap and doesn't even need to be in a language you understand to communicate the basic idea.

Art | Web | Kevin Cornell

I don't know what all the fuss is about. Or, more accurately, I don't know who would complain about image searches. I find myself increasingly using them to sift through the pages upon pages of results much faster than I could by reading the text synopses, and usually with more accurate results per click. Plus, the random "stumble upon" factor is much higher with image searches.

Case in point, Bearskinrug, "the webspace of illustrator and designer Kevin Cornell". I was performing a spur-of-the-moment image search for a 'coffee break' themed sight gag I was leaving for a chum on a 'social networking' site. The style of the art on Bearskinrug immediately caught my eye, and a few clicks later I had myself a new desktop. Brilliant stuff.

Video | Justice | Dance

We've mentioned Justice here previously but I'd thought I'd throw myself back into unsticking brains again with their newest video which currently has me doing the d-a-n-c-e to my ipod on the train platforms knowing full well that other waiting passengers can't hear the music. Too bad for them. Anyway, check out this out. If you loved hypercolor t-shirts, wait'll you get a load of these.

Website | Reality Carnival

I have no idea what first led me to discover the strange and kooky website Reality Carnival, but ever since I bookmarked it a few weeks ago, I find myself returning multiple times a day to check out its eclectic array of links on everything from curious subjects (like bizarre trees and M.C. Escher drawings made of Legos) to mathematical quandries to crazy psychedelic explorations to science fact and fiction. Really out there stuff, at least for someone without a Ph.D. in physics. But supremely fascinating nonetheless.

Video | Sesame Street | Classics

A friend turned me on to the awesome amount of old Sesame Street clips on You Tube. I haven't watched Sesame Street since a lot of these made their original television appearance, but they're all brilliantly inspired -- funny enough for adults while (I guess) teaching kids how to read. Hey, it worked for me, right?


My current fav -- how I still feel about food to this day.


Cookie Monster at the disco, spoofing Isaac Hayes' theme from Shaft. "Cookie? Me so 'ooooongreeee."

And this, while not from Sesame Street but the equally brilliant Muppet Show, remains one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

How I love Animal. *Sigh*

Advertising | Humour | Effective

I don't know how many funny ads I have seen in the last few years that succeed in making the audience laugh and completely fail to sell the product. Well, I guess the proverbial 1000 monkeys finally hit paydirt - because not only did I laugh when viewing this commercial, but I was actually able to find it on the web on my first search-engine attempt - meaning that I partially remembered what it was schilling. I'm probably no closer to actually buying this stuff, but I am happy to see that one ad agency seems to remember that the client is the one paying the bills, not the Yuk Yuks cabaret down the road.

Comics | Married to the Sea

A friend recently sent me a link to one of these funny comics and I've spent the last few minutes perusing some of the other quirky, off-beat comics on their site. Glad to see someone finally juxtaposed ghost riding the whip with 1800s illustration. Here's hoping they come up with one soon for thizz face. Or maybe they already have. Who cares, let's get hyphy ... nineteenth century styley, yo.

Music | Internet | Recent Innovations

I was looking up the track listings for the newest album from Canada's band-du-jour, Arcade Fire, when I stumbled across this website courtesy of your friendly neighborhood search engine.

That site, and my new zip code in Western Australia, reminded me that Sia, one of my favorite pint-sized musicians, has recently updated her website. I wonder if that means more solo material for her after secondment with Zero7 for the past several years....

Also, I really dig the faux-Edwardian styling of the Arcade Fire, and the ever eclectic proletariat fashion of The Decemberists, shown above.

Always being more of a music fan than a music purveyor, I was really impressed with Pandora's Podcasts on the elements of popular music. Great for music listeners, critics, and makers, they are a quick listen at around 8 minutes each - just short enough to stop you from killing them for repeating the same tune with each example. Of course the short-list of songs illustrating whichever style they describe in the podcasts is a nice touch, and might just make you go "hmmmmm" like it's 1993.

Art| Flickr | 11 Spring Street - Wooster Collective

Yep, it's one of those days where it's 17:26 and my brain is officially jelly. I've been thinking thinking thinking since the minute I got in, and my brain needs a break. Good thing I found this vibrant collection of photos on Flickr of the 11 Spring Street Wooster Collective -- link from a blog I've been reading a lot lately, Get-Around-Girl. Anyway, check the photos out, indulge in the bright colours and funky graffiti, and feel your brain go 'aaaaaah.'

Music | High Contrast | "Everything's Different"

Those of you who know me know of my ardent love for drum & bass, probably my all-time favourite sound. So I was super excited when I got the latest podcast from Hospitality a to find this video for "Everything's Different" from High Contrast whose High Society and FABRICLIVE albums are two of my favourites from the past couple years. Great song, great video, great way to kick off 2007.



Heck, while you're at it, check out this video for "Racing Green," off the High Society album. So good I need to take a break from work.



Now if only I could figure out under what rock the drum & bass scene in NY is hiding. In the meantime obsessing over the dubplates at Hopsital will have to do. Why am I not a deejay?

Comedy | Stand-up | Outclassed by the audience

We all know a guy just like this one :)

Music | C-mon & Kypski

I'm at work on a Sunday, so I've decided to declare it an official C-mon & Kypski Sunday and post some of the best videos from this Dutch hip hop group. Enjoy!


Video for "Shitty Bum".


Video for "Bumpy Road."


Video of Kypski scratching.

Art | Paper Cut | Peter Callesen

And to think all I did during art class was eat the glue. Paper cut art by Peter Callesen.

Video | Minilogue | "Hitchhikers Choice"

Very cool video made for Swedish group Minilogue by Swedish design/animation/awesome/musical group Ljudbilden & Piloten.
via Conversational Capital

Art | Sculpture | Ron Mueck

Last Saturday I headed off to the Brooklyn Museum of Art to catch two exhibitions, the first a retrospective of Annie Liebowitz and the second some sculptures by sculptor Ron Mueck. Ever read Paul Arden's "Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite"? This is the sculptor mentioned by Arden who was formally trained as a model maker for TV and film but found his calling as a true artist. I was excited for the Liebowitz work, but the BMA was so unbelievably crowded that it was hard to much face time with her photographs, many of which were postcard-sized. The Mueck stuff, on the other hand, is large and imposing, and absolutely mind-blowing. It's larger-than-life sculptures in totally realistic poses, with expressions so realistic it looks as though they'll blink in any minute. Or small sculptures that look like little human dolls, replete with little fingernails and body hair. The sculptures are very impressive, especially upon realising that Mueck and a team of assistants go through a process that combines photography, drawing, sculpture, and model-making, every stage of the process a unique art form in and of itself. The exhibition prompts questions about the nature of 'realism' in today's art world, and whether you chose to dwell on such matters or leave such questions to the art pros, Mueck's sculptures are fascinating, right down to the last hair.

Photography | Soviet Bus Shelters | Christopher Herwig

I started my new job this week and have found myself buried under a deluge of work that has not ceased until this minute, today. I have exactly one hour til my next meeting, and thought, since I have been typing pretty much nonstop since Day One of Full-Time Employment, that I'd relax by spending a little time on ye olde blogge.

Anyways, I was browsing one of my favourite sites, BoingBoing, and came across a link to this super cool collection of oft-decaying Soviet-era bus shelters on Polar Inertia, a journal of nomadic and popular culture, which can only be described as looking as though they belong on in an ancient Mongol planet of the future (wrap your brain around that one!). Here's one such photo, for more check out the collection on photographer Christopher Herwig's site.

Music | Canadiana | Semprini Records

I tracked this label down thanks to a lead from a friend who gave me a copy of the soundtrack to Regular or Super, a Canadian documentary on the life and work of influential architect Mies van der Rohe.

Semprini Records is a Canadian based label with a small but diverse catalogue, and there is an excellent selection of music to listen to from each of the three groups that the label publishes - a little something for every musical palate.

Art | Photography | Ramette & Frapiccini

The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (European House of Photography)is showing an exposition on the revolutionary photo news magazine Vu that ran from 1928 to 1940. I went to check it out and while it was well done, what really caught my eye was some modern work outside of the exhibit. Parisian photographer Philippe Ramette's work humourously features gravity defying businessmen. Italian Eva Frapiccini is another photographer whose work on display is unique with its original focus points. If you're in Paris, stop by for some visionary indulgence. If you're not in Paris,(sigh) the links will have to do...

Art | Direction | Juan Gatti

I saw Pedro Almodovar's Volver a few weeks ago, and was awed at the film's end when the title credits rolled, incorporating elements of the characters' clothing patterns into the funky graphic array of flowery imagery. A little research led me to this interesting article in the International Herald Tribune about the title credit's art director, Juan Gatti. In addition to collaborating with Almodovar on several of his films, Gatti has led a very vibrant career as an art director of both editorial and commercial work. Check out his engaging, eclectic portfolio here.

Advertising | Blog | Scary Ideas

Just discovered Scary Ideas, a blog/site dedicated to weird and funny advertisements and video clips. Lots of funny, clever ads, many of them actually real, although disappointingly, no agencies or creatives are cited for the work. Although, maybe that's for the best -- the emphasis here is on the weird and out-there, not on ego stroking. While I'm on the subject, frequent visits to Joe La Pompe are great for reminding one's self what has been done, over and over and over again (and a reminder why the visual pun/metaphor is so darn trite).

Art | Illustration | Saul Steinberg

When I was growing up, there weren't a lot of art books in our house. Don't get me wrong -- my parents are both smart people and there were tons of books around, it's just they were heavy on words and short on pictures. Besides feasting my eyes on the photos in National Geographic, I spent long hours sifting through the books on our shelves looking for the ones that had pictures, not just big, complicated words. (The abundance of books-with-words probably does account for why I was reading Slaughterhouse Five and The Communist Manifesto in seventh grade. But, I digress.) Anyway, one of the few books we had that contained almost only pictures and no words was a big, fat collection of the drawings of Saul Steinberg, the legendary illustrator for the New Yorker amongst countless other publications. When I discovered the book at age 7 or 8, I remember considering it as no different than any other picture books aimed at children, and just enjoying the whimsy and imagination of all his illustrations.

So, imagine my glee to discover he currently has not one, but two retrospectives currently here in New York. One, titled "Saul Steinberg: Illuminations," is at the Morgan Library through March 4, 2007, and features over one hundred drawings, collages, and sculptural assemblages; the other, titled "A City on Paper: Saul Steinberg's New York," is at the Museum of the City of New York, with a more New York-centric approach, through March 25, 2007. I won't be able to check either out til I return to New York in 2007, but I'm excited to see some of his stuff up close and original. In a world that's increasingly filled with so computer-generated work (from Photoshop to its impact in graphic design), it's really nice to get 'back to basics' and see what can be done with a piece of paper and ink.

Video | Hotel Kittyfornia

I was walking by Trocadero awhile back and saw a part of this being filmed and wondered what the hell was going on. Luckily, I just stumbled across the finished product online and my questions were answered. This clip, produced by and starring a fashion designer of all people, shows Hello Kitty as that girl you want to party with.

Design | Philosophy | Milton Glaser

Last Monday, I had the opportunity to see Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers speak at the 92nd Street Y on the art and evolution of book cover design. All three men are very different in their approach to cover design, but their presentations were illuminating on the kinds of processes they use to come up with their covers. Inspired, I checked out Milton Glaser's site and found this fantastic speech he made at an AIGA talk in London in 2001. So this isn't brand spanking new, but rather one of those classic pieces full of good advice for probably every working, thinking person out there. So, without further adieu, here are a few of my favourite excerpts from "Ten Things I Have Learned."

3. Some people are toxic. Avoid them.
...It is not necessarily true that the same person will be toxic or nourishing in every relationship, but the combination of any two people in a relationship produces toxic or nourishing consequences. And the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

4. Professionalism is not enough or The Good is The Enemy of The Great.
... I discovered after working for a while that professionalism itself was a limitation. After all, what professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks. ... After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success.

7. How you live changes your brain.

8. Doubt is better than certainty.
... I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. ...

His other essays are also full of a lot of very interesting insights which I strongly recommend as well.

Design | Blog | Print & Pattern

From GenArt's Pulse magazine, I followed a link to this very cool blog tracking all kinds of interesting design motifs, many of them charmingly retro.

Fashion | London | Cassette Playa

I thought I'd seen it all when I saw Jeremy Scott's collection that put a model in the show dressed like a snickers bar (or should I say Jeremy Bar?). Aside from the irony of associating a fashion model with sugar, how much further off the beaten runway can you get?

Then I got my answer. It came from London. It's called Cassette Playa. Its creator swears she doesn't do drugs. And as much as it boggles my mind that this line is so er ...original and successful, it somehow gives me peace to know we live in a world that embraces a designer who puts Sonic the Hedgehog on a runway.

Art | Philosophy | The Imaginary Foundation

Discovered a link to these folks on BoingBoing -- a Swiss group who's using streetwear as a way of getting out their message on the power of the imagination. Check the quote from their site:

A philosophy of research began to form: imagination as fundamental to all learning; artistic making as a model of integrating vision, materials, structure, and imagery.

The result is super cool t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, and art, all embracing their message in a really beautiful, inspiring way.

TV | Wonder Showzen

Whenever I need a pick-me-up or, at the very least, some fun procrastination time, I head over to youtube and watch clips from one of the funniest shows to grace TV screens in the last few years, Wonder Showzen. Sadly the show was cancelled after two seasons, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some of their finer moments, including the hysterically funny "Beat Kids" segments.





Now that they're out on DVDs, I'm adding them to my Christmas list, along with this, this, and this.

Photography | Kitsch | Lizard-Ville

I guess once you've been featured on David Letterman, you're not exactly underground, but there is something so weird and funny about these photographs of hypnotised lizards (by a 10-year-old Floridian girl, no less!) that I simply had to share. Available as images printed on T-shirts or greeting cards, they make the perfect Christmas gift for that reptile-obsessed relative or co-worker. It makes me think that I perhaps did not use my time wisely in Miami, and I could have tried a little harder to see the possible art potential in living in at Southgate in an apartment filled with cockroaches, centipedes, millipedes, silverfish, and geckos. I'd coulda been an insect-hypnotising-millionaire!

Cool Video | Justice vs. Simian | "We Are Your Friends"

Following Gina's post on très chic French boutique Collette, I followed their link to the video for Justice vs. Simian's "We Are Your Friends," a song that was played on really solid rotation this past year on BBC Radio One. thanks to some of their fabulous deejays, like Annie Nightingale and Annie Mac. (The video's not too bad either.)

Culture | Cool Find | Dance Class

It's as if there was once a group of friends sitting around Paris, talking about opening a boutique like no other and then out of the discussion came: "I know! Let's take a 7,500 square foot spot in the most expensive neighborhood in the city and then display the clothes on mannequins instead of hangers and we'll sell i-pods as well and we'll have a bar with a hundred different kinds of water and then we'll host a dance class, too..." And then everyone said "Chouette!"

I can't say that's exactly how it went down, but Colette, the store that has all of the above, opened almost ten years ago and is still the spot on the rue Saint-Honoré where you feel that much cooler just by walking inside. Clothes, books, music, and for the past year, dance classes as well. The next one is coming up on November 27 at le Paris Paris. If you're not going to be in town, you can at least check out the store's site which is almost as much fun. A little more interaction with your cute, helium-voiced robot hosts and it's more like a viedo game than a website.

Culture | Hip Hop | Beatbox.tv

Well, in honour (yes, with a 'u') of Jenne's move to the Big Apple, I have dug into my quite small archives of hip-hop on the web to present, for your listening pleasure, Beatbox.tv. I was initially drawn here when I was looking up details on Style Wars back in the day. I found a link pointing to "Yuri Harmonica" in the Videos section of the site, and was pretty much stupified. Way more stupified than when the guys at Lonely Island informed me that Mr. Pibbs and Red Vines are crazy delicious.

Also worth checking out are the tracks in the Showcase section. Mad science, indeed.

A Huge Unstuck Welcome ...

... to my newest contributors, Kyle, my Canadian-born-and-bred, world travelled friend, whom I met at a backpackers' hostel exactly five years ago in Istanbul, who currently resides in Amsterdam with his lovely, incredibly smart girlfriend, where he studies something scientific (and thus, for me, unexplainable) yet still manages to be totally up-to-date on all the happenings in culture and Gina, my fellow Californian (though hailing from the Southern half of our golden state), whom I know from many nights and days of frolicking in San Francisco (and subsequently Madrid, Paris, and Los Angeles), who currently resides just outside Paris with her fabulous French husband, where she has recently found employment in the fashion industry. I am so excited to have them both embarking on this project with me.

And since the site is always looking for something new, something different, feel free to email it our way.

Design | Awesome Agency | Holler

As some of you are well aware, I've had a little obsession with the UK's Lily Allen ever since I saw one of her music videos in Amsterdam. (I'm starting to wonder what I didn't see during those 5 days in Amsterdam. Is that city the hippest placec or what?) One of the things that I've been particularly admiring has been the very cool poster and CD design for her album's releases. I haven't been able to figure out who the exact team of designers has been behind the launch, but this very cool UK-based digital strategy experts, Holler, are behind her website. Their showcase is particularly revealing, with plenty of their artists weighing in on their latest creative expeditions.

Cool Video | Run Wrake | "Rabbit"

John sent me the link to this very cool animated short, "Rabbit," by director Run Wrake.

Art | Photography | Lori Nix

Never overcoming my love of pop art with its bold colours and strong contrasts, it will come as little surprise that the photography of Lori Nix caught my eye. Part obsessive miniaturist, part photographer, and part verbose autobiographer, Ms. Nix composes some captivating photos.

News | Zeitgeist | Newsmap

No, no, not the Google Zeitgeist, although this little Java applet does borrow heavily from Google News. Newsmap is a great approach to getting your finger on the pulse of world news or, for those so inclined, to find out why Vancouver is such a magnet for B-list celebs with hyphenated conditions (first Denise throws a hissy-fit, then Pammy mis-carries? What is going on on the set of that movie?)

For even more distraction check out the other activities on the main page at Maramushi, including the Flickr Graph, a must for all you flickrites.

Cool Video | Peter Bjorn and John | "Young Folks"

Saw this cool video in Amsterdam from this Swedish band back in September and forgot about it til it was featured during last week's Gray's Anatomy. Presumably a song off an upcoming album, as it's not yet available on iTunes. "Young Folks" might not "unstuck" your brain, but its whistling riff might get stuck in your head.

Cool Video | Album Cover Wars

John sent me the link to this cool video.

Writing | Zine | Moonlight Chronicles

This morning, I was hanging out at Yogi's house. He was making eggs and chatting with his friend on the phone, and I found this little zine on top of the breadbox in his kitchen. It's called Moonlight Chronicles, and it's full of wonderfully quirky drawings and musings on life, travel, and, of course, drawing. A nice break from the drudgery of commercial creativity -- the author, Dan Price, pays hommage to the simpler things in life, creating a real joy in the process.

Art | Painting | Gary Taxali

Saw these awesome oil paintings at the La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles over the weekend by Indian-born, Canadian-reared painter Gary Taxali. Check it out!

Cool Video | The Knife | "Like a Pen"

Eric Lister, good friend, illustrator extraordinaire, and fellow Marin County chum, shares this very cool animated video from Swedish group The Knife.

Writing | Humour | Steve Martin

Just sharing this because I remembered and because it's one of the funniest, wittiest things I've ever read, "Times Roman Font Announces Shortage of Periods," by Steve Martin.

Music | Drum & Bass | Radio

Originally posted on We Have The Most Fun, my personal blog.

Two Saturdays ago I was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco to meet my parents for dinner at Paul K in Hayes Valley before they went to the SF Symphony and I went to meet Natalie in the Lower Haight for some wine (before hitting up a Green Gorilla Lounge party later). Instinctively, my hand went to the preset dials for 90.3 FM, the radio station of KUSF, where I caught one of my all-time favourite radio shows, Saturday afternoon's Future Breaks. Lucky for everyone the world over, their sets are now available as podcasts, so when you're out of their signal range (or doing something else on a Saturday afternoon), you can still get their awesome mixes of the latest in drum 'n' bass, breaks, dubstep, etc. To sign up for their podcasts, click here. And if you want to just listen to their shows, head over to their blog. Now, if only there was a way to download Fabio & Grooverider ... if anyone knows how, let me know!

Art | Exhibition | Tropicalia

One of my biggest regrets last winter in London was not making it to the Barbican Centre for the widely advertised Tropicàlia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture exhibition. But just last Friday I flip through the latest issue of New York and discover that the exact same exhibition is now at The Bronx Museum of the Arts til January. Yay! I'm saving my visit til I'm back in New York in a few weeks. Who wants to go with me?

Art | Design | Droog

One of the best discoveries last fall in Amsterdam was the Dutch design collective, Droog. If you're ever in Amsterdam, I highly encourage you to stop by one of their showrooms for some of the most truly cutting-edge, quirky, funky household and furniture design. Sadly, their website is a little difficult to navigate for quick and easy inspiration, but this article is pretty good.

Art | Photography | Gregory Crewdson

A few months ago in Hamburg, I ventured into the center of town on a Saturday afternoon in hopes of getting my thoughts away from portfolio/ad school land. I visited the city's main bookstore and after seeing a fascinating working exhibition set up by the city's Museum of Labour, I spent a few hours browsing through the English novels and art books. That's when I discovered this guy, Gregory Crewdson, an American photographer whose work I fell head over heels in love with almost immediately. The book was well over 100 euros, so I spared myself the expense, but I think his work's suburban themes, cast in an iconographic, almost religious, light, are really inspirational. They make me think of ads where what's missing is the product. So, the game is, look at several of his pictures, and try to think of what kind of product or service they could be for. Or what kind of film, story, or commercial. This is one of my favourites.