Stamp art

Hsueh Shao-Tang, Stamp Connector, an appreciation at the Nonist.

Putting their stamp on art

• Dreamy underwater photos.
• Street art interacting with the street.
• Let it snow let it snow let it snow.
• Steve McCurry talks about Afghanistan.

Smoke gets in your eyes

Smoke signals

• Fifty designers' current favorite typefaces.
• At the drive-in.
• Art of the title sequence. One of my faves, Six Feet Under.
• Standing up against the end of the day.
• Bang, zoom!
• NASA units.
• Speaking of naps.

Dance dance revolution

This makes me really happy.

I'm gonna dance all night with the radio on

• Beautiful handmade books.
• The actuality of prom, as opposed to a John Hughes prom. "Getting pregnant?" "That's an American tradition."
• I'd rather look at this poster than the new movie anyday.

Where to put the camera?

Stephen Shore on his process and technique.

What to photograph?

• Black is back in Italian Vogue.
• Yesterday was the summer solstice. Expect days to get shorter.
• Martin Scorcese, move over.

japanese rooms

Japanese living spaces at home and abroad. Find the book here.

Cultural artifacts

• Scoop and stack.
• A kung pao chicken by any other name . . .
• Tree bed.

A cultural guide to the United Kingdom

Tea comes from China, and a cup from Japan, with sugar from New Guinea.

Other guides

• Book of Warriors!. The shoes, son, I say the shoes. (tx, karen)
• Coco Wang's Panda strips detailing the affects of the earthquake on the panda research center pandas and staff.
• Richard Serra: Rules are overrated.
• Lightsabers where lightsabers have no business to be.

One country through another country's eyes

Hiroshi Watanabe on America. Now and again, I still catch myself looking for them at the end of my street.

Among other things

• What does your country look like when distilled down to a logo?
• They talk! They sing! But how?
• Popup placemats.
• Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art.
• I can't believe it. I can't believe it. The things you can do with a spore-o-graph.
• You will live in a mansion / apartment / shack / house.

Battlespace

The above image was taken by Teru Kuwayama. It's of Afghanistan over the air, depicting the areas over which are being fought and in which the battles are taking place. It's also part of an exhibition of photographs by a number of photojournalists who have been covering the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of the photos can be disturbing. (Full disclosure, I was involved in the design of the catalog and the website.)

Other spaces

• Not so conspicuous consumption
• Look! Up in the air! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a logo.
• Be like Newton.
• Do you sing in the shower? Do you now?

Sigur Ros

Seeing Sigur Ros live is like going to church. I was fortunate enough to see them this past evening. This video doesn't do them justice. (Video replaced with video from the actual concert I went to. Whee! -tx, ykw)

Hopelandic

• Stream the new album.
• Watch the video.

Still moving photographs

Neat little trick.

Oddly related

• War photog blends video and stills.
• Didn't Christian Frei and James Nachtwey use this technique a few years ago on their War Photographer film?

No old men in this country ('cept me)

I love looking at storyboards. I remember when I was much younger buying a novelization of one of the Star Wars movies which was illustrated with storyboards. I spent as much time looking at the storyboards as I did reading the novel. Before video, it was like being able to watch the movie all over again. Here's more information on J. Todd Anderson, the artist behind the boards.

Summer fun

• Little people: a street art project.
• Little people, take two, a different take.
• Central Park summerstage schedule.
• On the absence of water.

You're so young and I'm so old

Reminds me of Tron, James Bond opening titles, and that claymation video of a depressed figure who invents bright goggles that appeared a few years back.

Fountains of youth

• Another way to get fit with Nintendo: Move with Mario.
• It might be easier to get this than the key to the executive wash room.
• Now what is it a messy desk is supposed to be indicative of?
• Ooo, swish!

Shape-shifters

I'm curious to see how it drives. I trust it wouldn't be flapping in the wind. It looks a little like a cat. Meeee-ow.

Movement and still-life

• Sleepy? Take a nap.
• What will a voodoo doll do to save his friends
• She's got hers: Eco zoo popup books.

Paddling

I love canoeing. A few years ago, I went on Long Island, but it wasn't quite as magical or dreamy as this.

Pitter patter

• A long day's night
• Beautiful: Arabic type and typography.
• Noman wrote this blog! BibliOdyssey.
• Paper steak.

Y'all can't be playing no checkers on no chess board, yo!

The Wire is well worth the investment (though the last season was disappointing after the highs of three and four). It's the antithesis of everything I hate about shows like Law & Order. It's the cure for the common crime show. It's not TV, it's HBO. Indeed.

The king stay the king

• You'll need a little more than four minutes: The democractic primaries in eight minutes.
• Pre-summer list of things to do in New York. Egads! I hope it doesn't get much more summer than now!
• Put on a smiling face (for your plant).
• More expensive than oil.
• Speak.
• Whale watch.
• A new breed of zebra crossing.

Advice column

Keep making crap until it's not crap anymore.

City section

• Alexander Hamilton's home achieves a top speed of 0.4 miles an hour.
• There are eight million cities in this story.
• Curating the city on the left coast.
• There are 600 million adolescent girls living in poverty in the developing world. Change starts with a girl. Direct link to Global giving.
• Blast those fries.

Pepper Pots

I've been taking ceramics at the 92nd Street Y this year. Here are four of my latest, the average height of which is around 3 inches (they have to fit in my tiny apartment). This session, we're working with porcelain, which feels delicious. (The photos were taken with my laptop, so the images aren't superb.)

Iron Men

• The 25th Hour of Florent Morellet. I went on my birthday to say goodbye.
• How the Web Was Won and where it got us?
• Ever want to drop $150K on a book? Now you can.
• His passion is moving heavy objects.
• Wii're fit thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto.

Another view

The smiling faces make some of these brilliant Lego recreations of famous photographs somewhat creepy.

More photography

• Final salute. A year with the Marines stationed at Aurora, Colorado's Buckley Air Force Base called upon to notify families of their son's deaths in Iraq.
• Maki Kawakita on video. More of her work here. Her prints are really amazing.
• Celebrating Women in Photography.
• I really love Elinor's work. Again, the scans don't do the prints justice.
• Not photography, but related in other ways, a patchwork quilt.
• A curated collection of photographs found on the web: I lie down (on the road).
• Dutch masters finger photographed. (tx ben)

Time's arrow

In other news

• Radiohead Nude remix
• What do the designers at Trollback + Company think about before they fall asleep?
• Where the real flavor is.
• Robert Frank's The Americans re-released just in time for my birthday. (It's beautiful. I got mine at the Strand).
• Verve photo. A new breed of documentary photographers. I hope one day to be able to count the people featured here among my peers. It gives me something to aspire to.
• Noodle therapy.
• Steinski gets a career retrospective (I hope my cousin wins a Grammy for the liner notes).
• Paul Fusco's RFK Funeral train, rediscovered at Danziger Projects.
• In heavy rotation: Crystal Castles.

Flash Frogger

Play the original "Why did the frog cross the road" game.