Grass art

On my other blog, I had once mentioned Binh Danh's chlorophyll photography. I think you might be able to get to it by clicking here. Now, an article on Canada.com describes two British artists who are using lawns as a photographic medium. You can read more about them here. For examples of their work, check out the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum site, which has a sampling of their work from an exhibition last year here.

Quiz show

I'm a sucker for these things as you'll no doubt find out. This one purports to tell you your inner silver screen siren. I wasn't going to bother mentioning it save for when I sent it to a cousin of mine she replied, "I don't think I can answer the questions. I've never heard of half the guys listed." Makes me feel old. Winning one for the Gipper. And me? I'm Katie Hepburn. But my favorite line? With respect to marriage, "I like to wake up each morning feeling a new man." Now who said that?

By the People For the People

The Library of Congress has a link to a site of posters from the WPA. They're superfantastic. It's a huge site containing 908 of the 2,000 known to exist. The "silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. The posters were made possible by one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts and were added to the Library's holdings in the 1940s." (courtesy contientious)

Print portfolio?

It's been a while since I've attempted to amass a print portfolio. For one reason or another I spent some time this past weekend attempting it. You can see the results here. Click on the right page to go forward and the left to go back. There's no cover at the moment so if you go back too far it'll become problemmatic. And I'm still playing with little bits of it. Feel free to let me know any thoughts you might have on it.

Losing one's marbles

In college one of my instructors used to always use the diminutive form of a writer's first name. So it was Jimmy Joyce and Harry James (which made me think of the Golden Bowl as a sock hop). These examples are invented but the concept behind them is true. All this to introduce Maggie Atwood. I spent the whole of Friday reading Cat's Eye, which I had started reading at the beginning of the week. The blackout allowed me the free time, with nothing better to do than sit on a park bench in the shade of a tree and read. I finished the book after the power had returned and I had moved to the bank of the Hudson River, near Stuyvesant High School. The book is good when it stays in the past. As it tries to explicate the present it becomes somewhat less interesting. The French maid had lent it to me, commenting on how a woman might read it differently for the nuanced way in which Atwood describes the relationships between adolescent girls and the feminist bent of the writing. Rather, the way in which the feminine mind is rendered. I was intrigued. And, eventually, rewarded by a very good last line. Still, in deference to Young Kirsten Jane, it ain't no "Isn't it pretty to think so." I welcome any recommendations on what to read next. And as an aside, I think this cover (and the one that bound the edition I read) could be significantly improved. Oh, and you can check out a reading guide on the book here.

Music videos and Bjork

The Times has an article in Sunday's paper taking the form of a round-table discussion with Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michael Gondry. Coincidentally, all have worked with Bjork. Not-so-coincidentally, all have released anthologies of their video work. Cunningham has long been one of my favorite directors working in the music video field ever since his Kama Sutra meets industrial robots video for Bjork's "All is Full of Love." I also love the video he did for Squarepusher's "Come on my Selector." You can learn more about Cunningham here. I seem to remember this site having links to the videos in the past but it seems those are now unfortunately missing. You can find some of Gondry's and Jonze's work for Bjork here, but unfortunately not Cunningham's. (Incidentally, I do really like Jonze's video for "It's Oh So Quiet" with it's sunny 40s movie musical numbers and Gondry's for "Human Behavior," with the giant teddy quite a bit as well.)

Blackout

Yesterday at 4.11 or thereabouts the power went out. Looking across the street we could see people in office buildings looking back at us, milling about, or staring at their computer screens. Buildings soon emptied into the streets as we discovered power had gone out all around the city. Last night it was peaceful. A camraderie had built up from the shared experience as people ate on sidewalks by candlelight, the city not as dark as one might expect. After dinner I climbed up onto the roof to look at the stars and the shadow of the city. The waxing moon rose orange on the horizon. Guillamette wrote a story by candlelight, longhand with pen and paper. And then sent it in by carrier pigeon, "the modem of the poor," as she calls it. If you can read French, you can find it here.

World's finest selection of logos.

Goodlogo!com is dedicated to the artform of the logo and its accompanied corporate identity. Including case studies and the like, the site continues to grow. Submissions are welcome.

Madden NFL 2004

Wired has an article about Madden NFL 2004, the game that made Electronic Arts. Madden apparently told them they could only put his name on it if the gameplay reflected the sport by using 11 players on a team rather than the shortened rosters of other games. From that kernel of realism came a philosophy that revolutionized the industry. One of the funnier bits of the article are the players themselves, who eagerly await each new generation of the game to see how their stats fare within the game itself. (thanks ben)

James Bond First editions

While poking around the internet I came across the Art of James Bond (courtesy Dublog). The site is "a celebration of the work of a number of largely unsung heroes who have contributed superb artwork and designs that helped James Bond become one of the most successful and recognisable icons of the past half century." What caught my eye in particular were the cover art for the first editions of Ian Fleming's novels. One of the cooler examples is the accidental oxidized version of The Man with the Golden Gun. It reminds me of the intentionally rusted Bill Evans box set on Verve that received so many complaints. Still, it was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Recording Package, boxed, in 1998. It lost to Rhino's Beg, Scream & Shout: The Big Ol' Box of 60s Soul, which housed the cds in sleeves to resemble old 45s packaged in an old 45s carrying case.

Four blades over three

Next month Schick is releasing the "Quattro," the first razor with four blades. They're trying to unseat the market dominance of Gillette's Mach 3's three-blade razor. Unfortunately, there's no pictures yet on their site. The trials and tribulations of design and one-upsmanship are documented in an All Things Considered piece you can listen to here. I use the disposable ST. Though I never seem to dispose of them.

Museum of Arts & Design

The American Crafts Museum changed its name to the Museum of Arts & Design last year. Somehow I missed that. Be that as it may, the museum is currently devoted to USDesign 1975-2000, "offering a critical and comprehensive analysis of American design during the last quarter of the twentieth century." You can read more about the exhibit here.

Kate Spade takes to the air

The New York Times today reports that Kate and Andy Spade will be dressing the flight attendants for Song, a new low-cost carrier started by Delta Airlines. Kate will do the women, Andy the men. Apparently, flght attendants and customer service staff will each receive one basic outfit for free and then be able to buy more pieces at cost. "They will choose from among 15 pieces, more or less, in a color scheme of charcoal gray, white and green--the color of an exotic parrot--with plenty of stripes thrown in. There will be green and white striped short-sleeve oxford shirts and coat linings in a gray and green stripe the Spades designed for the airline. Other choices will include sleeveless tops and straight skirts for the women, along with trousers, trench coats and canvas luggage." It may seem that I'm particularly inclined towards design in the airline industry, but that's coincidence. However, this does seem to be a good time to relink to uniformfreak, a collection of flight attendant uniforms from around the world. I had mentioned this on my other blog, but it seems particularly apt here.

Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend of mine about Noguchi and his lamps. I believe it might have been Shawmut speaking of Shawmut. While clicking around the Smithsonian site, I stumbled across this exhibition of his ceramics. Make sure you click on the interactive bit in the column on the right of the actual page which you can find here. I almost expected that they would animate some of the objects. Complete with roars and whatnot. Akin to Alexander Calder's circus.

Color me Madd Kidd Roger

What's your pirate name? Find out here. Just in time for those Pirates of the Carribean theme parties. Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Proce55ing

Speaking of heroes, former roommate Ben Fry finds himself in Wired magazine this month on page 61. The article is a shot blurb on Proce55ing, an application he created and is developing with Casey Reas. The scary description is "Processing is a context for exploring the emerging conceptual space enabled by electronic media. It is an environment for learning the fundamentals of computer programming within the context of the electronic arts and it is an electronic sketchbook for developing ideas." What it is is a tool that helps people disinclined towards programming to make complex things simply within java. Or, as Fry writes, "It's java with training wheels. we try to make the cool stuff more accessible." He's been trying to get me to learn for, it seems, years. Maybe I'll start learning in September once my life calms down a bit. You can learn more about the application, see some examples, and download the beta here. And while we're at it, here's an example of someone putting it into practice. Incidentally, the image above is a still from a proce55ing piece created by Peter Cho. You can now find the Wired article here.

The life of Pi and I

The narrator of The Life of Pi claims that the story he will tell is one that will make you believe in God. Ed counters that it is one that will make you believe in the power of narrative. I subscribe to the latter. Though I'm not sure that the effect could have been achieved in fewer pages. Perhaps according to my custom of reading fiction of a country I am visiting, I finished Yann Martel's book while I visited Toronto this past weekend. I am just returned. I went to attend a wedding, which was outdoors and beautiful. The reception took the form of a brunch and I relaxed and ate with my friends on the verandah of the estate upon which the wedding was held. Family ate indoors. Once I have the time, I'll develop the film I took and print a few of the better pictures. Some might even find their way to my photo blog. When I arrived at the airport, I was surprised to find the friend with whom I stayed as pregnant as she was. She told me she was still four weeks from her delivery date, but her size made me wonder. I am expecting a birth announcement any day. Unfortunately, she wouldn't let me treat her husband and her to dinner or brunch and so I find my pockets stuffed with Canadian dollars. I've decided to keep it and find an excuse to return to Canada soon. You can read more about The Life of Pi here, including the first chapter, which takes on the form of an author's note, here. I am now, thanks to the generosity of the French maid, going to embark upon reading Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye.

The Om Factor

Slate had a small essay on new trends in architecture. A new minimalism seems to be creeping into buildings, a reaction to the flamboyant works of the recent past. The article is an interesting look at a little of what's going on with some good images to illustrate. You can find it here.

Album covers art

I was watching Liz Phair's latest video, Why Can't I, which uses the metaphor of a jukebox to great effect. Phair appears on a number of old album covers and then animates, singing the song. What it has to do with the lyrics I have no idea, but it's a cool use of old rock album covers. You can see the video here. I wish there was an article somewhere that listed all the original source material. As I thought more about album covers I started looking for an online resource of Reid Miles designs for old Blue Note album covers. Chronicle Books has put out a number of collections of the covers, a short excerpt of which can be found here, but I couldn't find an online compendium. Those old Blue Note covers are one of the reasons I got into 50s and 60s jazz and also into graphic design. A few years ago I started collecting the actual albums on vinyl until I realized I would quickly run out of both space and money. A short bio of Reid Miles can be found here, along with some somewhat humorous designer trading cards. The listing of Eric Gill's weaknesses is particularly biting given his proclivities. At home I have a few books of Gill's inscriptions. While I'm not always crazy about the digital translations of his types, he was a fantastic letterer.

Step Into Liquid

I've long been fascinated by surfing. I've tried it only once and managed to catch only one wave, but there's something about the idea that still thrills me. Standing was out of the question. The same trip to California I watched Endless Summer with my friend Patty (who also has a thing for surfing). Now, the filmmakers have returned with Step Into Liquid, featuring some breathtaking cinematography that seamlessly moves from above ground to underwater and includes the highly anticipated footage from Cortez Banks. The film was announced a while ago and there used to be a much longer and cooler trailer than the one currently being used to advertise the film, but it only now seems to be coming out in wide release. At least the new trailer doesn't do the wavy type effect of the old one. If you have a fast connection, you can download the original trailer here. I think it's worth it, but then if I had the time and money I'd go to Costa Rica to surf school. The official site is here.

Peter Cho and letterscapes

Peter Cho is one of my heroes, if for nothing else than Letterscapes. Of course there's much more than just that, as you can find out for yourself both here and here. Oh yeah, and on the subject of heroes, Ben Fry is another one, if only for introducing me to Peter. ;-)

Animated Films

It seems that there's a dearth of quality traditionally animated films coming out in the states now. The standard bearer resides in Japan. Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli is putting out some of the finest animated films ever made; his Spirited Away was one of the best files to come out last year bar none. A culmination of his themes and ideas, the film is now out on DVD. For more about Miyazaki and his works in english, check out this fan site.

The Incredibles

A few weeks ago Pixar announced their new project with a teaser. I had just finished reading Alan Moore's Watchmen, a deconstruction of the traditional superhero comic book. While The Incredibles will no doubt prove to be a humorous look at the lives of superheros past their golden age whereas Watchmen takes a much darker turn, it's interesting that both these works mine similar material. You can read more about Watchmen here. For more about The Incredibles click here.

Airline safety cards redux

Speaking of airline safety cards, I am reminded of these reinterpretations. I forget where I first saw this, but apparently they were created by airtoons.

Idaho

I grew up in Idaho, spending my formative elementary school years in Idaho Falls. It seems to be a constant source of surprise when I mention it, and in truth I wonder how I might have turned out different had we never moved from there. It also sets up strange coincidences and friendster messages, as when I emailed a friend of a friend commenting on her own years spent in the falls and she returned an effusive email that seemed to suggest we were long lost sandbox buddies. My time in Idaho also precipitated one of the oddest phone calls I have ever received as a friend from those years called me up out of the blue. I didn't remember her. Fortunately my father was online and I kept checking the veracity of her claims with him. Did we know someone who's father now works for NASA? Yes. Was there a family who lived down the street named ------? Yes. Hmm. It's perhaps because of this that I got Idaho's albums. Today will probably be a fairly heavy Idaho rotation. To learn more about the band click here. To learn about the potatoes for which the state is known click here. (nb: "Idaho's unique environment provides nearly perfect growing conditions for potatoes.")

Design for Impact

For anyone who's spent any time examining the airline safety cards in the seat pocket in front of them and wondered at the design possibilities, Erik Ericson and John Pihl have compiled a book for them. Examples are culled from the collection of Carl Reese, the "King of Safety Card," who boasts a collection of over 70,000 cards. Selecting examples of airline safety card design from the past 50 years and from around the globe, this volume contains multitudes, including what is supposed to be perhaps the first card ever offered for review. A website with safety card designs printed on trays and carpets can be found here and the book can be purchased from the press here. The best part about the site is the ambient background tone that simulates the sound of flying in a commercial jet. So if you're dying to get away, put your headphones on, click on the site, and close your eyes. Imagine that you have no legroom and that someone keeps getting up to bump you in the shoulder and you could be on your way to anywhere.

Daniel Lanois

While I'm on the Canada tip, I've been addicted to Daniel Lanois' For the Beauty of Wynona. It's an album I come back to every few years without fail. Those unfamiliar with the name will undoubtedly know his work. He produced U2's The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, Peter Gabriel's So, and Bob Dylan's Time out of Mind. His music is somewhat ethereal, using space to great effect. One of his best latest producing efforts was for Emmylou Harris who's Wrecking Ball boasts a number of songs penned by Lanois. His new album is somewhat dull, but has some moments. You can learn more about him at his site, which has a rather unfortunate opening intro. Incidentally, Simone tells me that every week I have a new obsession. If that's true "Lotta Love to Give" off of Wynona is this week's very specific one.

100 of the Most Important Chairs in Design

The week after I first moved to New York I went on vacation to London. It wasn't the most auspicious timing. I had just arrived in a new city and was going off to yet another new city to spend some time. It wasn't the most successful trip. One thing that I did end up doing was dragging some friends to the design museum there. We were supposed to spend the day visiting some castle, but everyone got up late and people were being indecisive. Once we got there, my friend David was incredulous that chairs would be featured in a museum. Canada's design museum, the Design Exchange, is currently holding an exhibition titled Dimensions in Design featuring 100 minatures of classical chairs, all produced by the Vitra Design Museum. I'm thinking of inviting David on another trip.

Zoo: A textile menagerie

In researching things to do in Toronto this upcoming weekend (I'm heading up for a wedding) I stumbled across the Textile Museum of Canada's exhibition of animals immortalized on fabric. The image on the right is a Canadian entry. I probably won't get to the exhibit. I haven't been to Toronto in at least a year and a half and there are bunches of people I'd like to see. Still, I have one friend who graduated from Ryerson in fashion design who might be interested in spending some time at the museum.

Iron Stomach

Good news! Iron Stomach: Gebo-gebo attack is back! Click here to play. More or less a new twist on columns or tetris, this verison takes the form of a gustatorial battle with the bonus of being able to puke on your opponent. Take note of your combos; they could save you in the end.

Salsa Extreme

To find out all the latest news on the salsa scene in New York, one need look no further than Salsa Extreme. Created by Waygee, you can find tips, tricks, class, and schedules for venues around the city and beyond. Make sure you check out the Ecards, featuring WayGee and his friends exhibiting some slick moves. As a dancer, WayGee is my hero. If I could be half as good I'd count myself lucky. Last night, I was starting to wonder if I could become so if I followed in his footsteps and took exactly all the classes he took with the same teachers and went to the same salsa vacations and salsa nights and . . .

Criterion's next batch

Browsing Criterion's site, I noticed that they've announced a DVD version of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story. The set will include a two-hour documentary about the life and career of Ozu, featuring former assistant Shohei Imamura (director of The Pornographers, The Eel), critics Donald Richie and Tadao Sato, actors Chishu Ryu, Mariko Okada, and Haruko Sugimura, and others. What I would love for Criterion to do is release a three DVD box set of Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy as well as Fellini's La Strada (which was announced last year but then pulled). Of La Strada, Fellini once called it "the complete catalogue of my entire mythological world."

Orisinal: Morning Sunshine

While I'm on the topic of online games, Orisinal makes some of the cutest and most beautiful I've ever seen. They're not always the most challenging, but sometimes you just want a game to soothe your soul and pass the time, no? There's even a store selling mugs and tshirts emblazoned with the animated characters from the games.

Donkey Kong Jr.

I remember when I was younger and handheld video games weren't quite as fancy as the GameBoy Advance SP or even the games you can find on cell phones. The graphics were static, and it was just a matter of moving from one image to the other to create the illusion of animation. And the backgrounds were painted on the screen themselves. And yeah, we walked uphill both ways to school in the winter (and when we were lucky enough to have the bus running, my hair would freeze waiting for it). My friends occasionally had these electronic games; I never did. But then, a while ago, Coudal linked to this web-based version of the old hand-held version of Donkey Kong, Jr. And for a moment I could relive my past with a game of my very own. My last score was a measly 110 points.

Japanese Emoticons.

For my inagural posting, I thought I'd post the inspiration for this blog. I have a blog that's slanted more towards photography, but there are those certain things that don't seem to fit on that blog, so this is just a random blog to test out and to see if it's worth having two. The emoticon that gives this blog its name comes from this site. They're a little more labor intensive, but in the end I think it's worth it. After all, you get what you pay for. The longer story is that I was talking to my cousin Rebecca about emoticons and she forwarded me a site I had forwarded to her a while ago. When I called her on it, she readily agreed that I had showed it to her originally and then I started wondering where I could just post these things. And thus, shall we dansu was born.