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.