Monday, October 31, 2011

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Artist - Ai Weiwei

Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei is "active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film and social, political and cultural criticism" (according to Wikipedia).

Having been incarcerated over the summer in China for alleged tax evasion (but well believed for his criticism of the Chinese government), Weiwei was included in this year's Time Magzine 100 Most Influential People in the World and named Art Review Magazine's most powerful figure in the art world.

  • Sunflower Seeds, 2010
"In October 2010, Sunflower Seeds was installed at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London. The work consists of one hundred million porcelain "seeds," each individually hand-painted in the town of Jingdezhen by 1,600 Chinese artisans, and scattered over a large area of the exhibition hall. The artist was keen for visitors to walk across and roll in the work to experience and contemplate the essence of his comment on mass consumption, Chinese industry, famine and collective work. However, on 16 October, Tate Modern stopped people from walking on the exhibit due to health liability concerns over the porcelain dust. In February 2011, a 220-pound (100 kg) pile from Sunflower Seeds sold for $559,394 (well above its high estimate of $195,000) at Sotheby's in London."
  • Template, 2008
Template was made of "wooden doors and windows from destroyed Ming and Qing Dynasty houses (1368-1911);" however, was destroyed in a storm.


  • Bird's Nest - 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium
Weiwei was a creative consultant for the stadium's design.



Fully Functional Camera Costume

Via Boooooooom

1979 PBR Commercial



Starring Patrick Swayze

What number person were you?

BBC News has created an interactive piece that lets you find out what number person in the world you are (of the now 7 billion).

Tinker Hatfield - TEDxPortland


Nike VP of Creative Design and greatest shoe designer of all-time Tinker Hatfield did a TED talk a month ago in Portland, OR explaining his corporate role as a provocateur, story teller and futurist.

Coca-Cola 'Arctic Home' White Can


Coca-Cola, in keeping with the many, many years of Polar Bear advertising, has pledged a minimum of a $2 million donation to the World Wildlife Fund to support polar bears.

Watch the video to see the limited time only white can.

2012 Basketball Shoes


Nike Lebron 9


Jordan Melo M8

And finally,

Friday, October 28, 2011

Nickelodeon Slime Ingredients

In an interview with Gourmet.com, former Nickelodeon show Double Dare host Marc Summers revealed the 4 ingredients that made up Slime.
  • Vanilla pudding
  • Applesauce
  • Oatmeal
  • Green food coloring

The Worst Beers in the World

RateBeer.com has compiled ratings by "thousands of beer enthusiasts" on a scale of 0-10 (much like IMDB) and have posted the 50 worst rated beers in the world. Below, the lowest rated 16.

  1. Olde English 800 3.2
  2. Natural Ice
  3. Natural Light
  4. Milwaukees Best
  5. Michelob Ultra
  6. Sleeman Clear
  7. Budweiser Select 55
  8. Coors Aspen Edge
  9. Bud Light Chelada
  10. Busch Ice
  11. Bud Light
  12. Busch Light
  13. Milwaukees Best Light
  14. Miller Genuine Draft Light 64 (MDG Light 64)
  15. Camo Genuine Ale
  16. Keystone Light

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

NBA Lockout Trading Cards






Created by The A States

Faile (Houston + Bowery)


The new Faile work was put up today.


Look out for their next opening in London 11/3.

Jordan: Love The Game


Air Jordan brings out Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony for a 2011 NBA lockout ad.

Look back at some of the best lockout ads from 1998.

Syd The Kyd Remixes Lana Del Rey


Odd Future DJ Syd The Kyd remixes Lana Del Rey's "Blue Jeans."

Banksy #OccupyLondon Statue

Unconfirmed if it was made by Banksy, but the Londonist is speculating.

"Love Conquers All Programming"

The New Yorker's profile of long-time Pixar story creator, director and writer Andrew Stanton notes that,

"He read and reread Lajos Egri's "The Art of Dramatic Writing," which taught him to distill movies to one crisp sentence before making them. For "Finding Nemo," it was "Fear denies a good father from being one," and, for "Wall-E," "Love conquers all programming."

Monday, October 24, 2011

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Arcade Fire + Neil Young - "Helpless"


Canadian Indie rock band Arcade Fire performed a cover of "Helpless" with Neil Young this past weekend (Neil Young's performance with The Band and Joni Mitchell is one of my personal favorites from "The Last Waltz").

Prize-Winning Carved Pumpkins



Gothamist posted this year's Crest Hardware (Brooklyn) pumpkin carving contest. Select photos above.

Looking at the last picture, the New Yorker posted an interesting story today on the quiet success of President Obama's foreign relations. Jon Stewart also did a great piece on a similar story this week.

And while only one percent of American's name foreign policy as an issue that matters come presidential election time
"...there’s something strange about the backseat status often given to foreign policy in Presidential campaigns. Presidents have a great deal more sway over the matters of war, peace, and diplomacy than they have over the economic weather. (Globalism and the House of Representatives make sure of that.) Even stranger is the lack of attention given to foreign affairs by the [Republican] candidates themselves.

The leading Republican candidate (for the moment) is Herman Cain, and so far he has displayed what can only be called an uncertain grasp of worldly matters. He recently declared that knowing the name of the leader of “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan” was of no interest to him and he saw no reason why it should be. (As it happens, Islam Karimov, the bloody-minded leader of Uzbekistan, is an especially important dictator in a region, Central Asia, that is of vital interest to the United States.) Rick Perry is similarly, and smugly, detached. When it comes to world affairs, his most notable proposal is to defund the United Nations."

Theo Epstein Thanks Boston

Former Boston Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein, who has left the Red Sox for the Chicago Cubs, paid for this full page ad in tomorrow's Boston Globe.

Innovation Badge

Fast Company - "What Designing The New Girl Scouts Innovation Badges Taught Us About Raising Leaders"

The Girl Scouts of America, which will be celebrating their 100-year anniversary this coming March, have announced the new Innovation Badge. Fast Company speculates below,

"In thinking about what we’ll need from our future leaders, executives have come to realize that the ability to innovate will be one of the foremost qualities--that is, the ability to quickly identify solutions for problems, many of which don’t even exist yet. To paraphrase President Barack Obama: Innovation is our ticket to success in the future."
Cool move by the Girl Scouts. Creativity, innovation and design do seem like a key to a successful future for America as New York Magazine notes that,

"Nearly 14 percent of college graduates from the classes of 2006 through 2010 can’t find full-time work, and overall just 55.3 percent of people ages 16 to 29 have jobs. That’s the lowest percentage since World War II."

Most Energy Efficient States In the U.S.


The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranked "all 50 states in terms of how energy-efficient friendly their policies are."

1. Massachusetts
2. California
3. New York
4. Oregon
5. Washington
5. Vermont
5. Rhode Island
8. Minnesota
.
.
.
49. Mississippi
50. Wyoming
51. North Dakota*

Is there a connection between lack of energy-efficient policies and lack of broadband Internet connection?



* Washington D.C. was ranked making it 50 states + D.C.

Artist - Josh Keyes



Also opening at Jonathan Levine Gallery last night was Portland, OR artist Josh Keyes "Migration."

Above pictures from the exhibit.

Artist - AJ Fosik



Portland, OR artist AJ Fosik opened "Time Kills All Gods" last night at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in the lower westside of Manhattan last night.

Above, pictures from the exhibit.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Madame Tussauds - Troy Polamalu

Tim Burton - Macy's Parade Float

Reports are out that filmmaker and artist Tim Burton is planning a float for this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Burton will follow a group of respected artists that have created floats for the parade: Tom Otterness, Jeff Koons, Keith Haring and Takashi Murakami.

New York Times - "Tim Burton Lines Up a Spot in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade"

Jay-Z - "Lost One" Annotated

To celebrate the paperback release of Jay-Z's semi-autobiography, song/lyrical annotation book Decoded NYMag has a preview page for 2006's Kingdom Come single "Lost One."

Click the below link to read the story.

NYMag - "Read an Exclusive Annotated Lyric From the New Expanded Edition of Jay-Z’s Decoded"

Friday, October 21, 2011

Monkey Made of Flip-Flops


Dutch artist Florentjn Hofman used 10,000 pairs of flip-flops to create the 45-foot-long "Fat Monkey" in a SĂ£o Paulo, Brazil park.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Dressed for Dinner


Designer Adam Kimmel got illusionist David Blaine to model some of his finer clothes 40 feet underwater off "the remote island" of Gudalupe.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

EW - 25 Greatest Directors

Entertainment Weekly's list of "the most talented, in-demand filmmakers behind the camera today."

25. Wes Anderson
24. Mike Leigh
23. Brad Bird
22. J.J. Abrams
21. Spike Lee
20. Edgar Wright
19. Peter Jackson
18. James Cameron
17. David Lynch
16. David O. Russell
15. Kathryn Bigelow
14. Danny Boyle
13. Roman Polanski
12. Guillermo del Toro
10. Pedro AlmodĂ³var
9. Clint Eastwood
8. Terrence Malick
7. Quentin Tarantino
6. Joel and Ethan Coen
5. Darren Aronofsky
4. Martin Scorsese
3. Steven Spielberg
2. Christopher Nolan
1. David Fincher

VĂ¡monos


From the agency, Deutsch Inc., that created the most watched video on the Internet this past week, Sony Playstation's "Michael."

Friday, October 14, 2011

Architect Bjarke Ingels

"Historically the field of architecture has been dominated by two opposing extremes. On one side an avant-garde full of crazy ideas. Originating from philosophy, mysticism or a fascination of the formal potential of computer visualizations they are often so detached from reality that they fail to become something other than eccentric curiosities. On the other side there are well organized corporate consultants that build predictable and boring boxes of high standard. Architecture seems to be entrenched in two equally unfertile fronts: either naively utopian or petrifyingly pragmatic. We believe that there is a third way wedged in the nomansland between the diametrical opposites. Or in the small but very fertile overlap between the two. A pragmatic utopian architecture that takes on the creation of socially, economically and environmentally perfect places as a practical objective."
-Bjarke Ingels










Thursday, October 13, 2011

ASAP Rocky




"He still returns to Harlem regularly, though, and he is still a New York rapper, albeit a new breed. Classic New York formalism, the style practically invented by ASAP Rocky’s namesake, is a dying language, on the verge of extinction. Given that, it makes sense that the next New York rapper to experience widespread success would leave that sound behind."

"It’s worth remembering that great New York rappers have borrowed from the South (and elsewhere) for years, whether it was Biggie Smalls’s bouncier flows, Jay-Z lifting lines from Bun B of UGK, Cam’ron remaking the New Orleans anthem’s “I’m Bout It, Bout It,” or more. Now comes ASAP Rocky, mindful of that past, and also moving beyond it, and slowly showing New York its future."

Urban Design

Below are my personal favorite design's in New York Magazine's "The Delirious City: A Survey." Click on the link to see and read descriptions of all 24 of the magazine's "favorite recent (and imminent) urban inventions."

"Santiago Calatrava’s glass-bottomed Constitution Bridge in Venice, only the fourth over the Grand Canal, triggered storms of derision even before it opened. Accused of being overly expensive, inexcusably late, aesthetically inharmonious, and, most egregiously, not accessible to the handicapped, it is nevertheless a graceful addition to an architecturally demanding city.”

“The Al Hamra Tower [in Kuwait City] is such a paradigm-buster: The glass shield covers only three-quarters of it, with the back quarter a spine of masonry that functions as a heat-absorbing environmental feature. It has this romantic, solitary silhouette that really stands out.”
“The Flower Tower [in Paris] is basically a box full of ordinary apartments with terraces surrounded by flowerpots. It’s very simple, almost cartoonish, but it has an extraordinary effect—those concrete slabs and all that green coming out of it.”
“Combine the words government housing and high-rise and most people think disaster. But the Pinnacle@Duxton [in Singapore] has these significant sky bridges that are basically parks in the sky for the residents.”
“The Fuji Kindergarten’s Ring Around a Tree classroom [in Tokyo], designed by Yui and Takaharu Tezuka, is a kid’s dream come true: a graceful glass-and-wood ramp that spirals up and around a treasured 50-year-old zelkova tree. Inside are spaces where children both play and learn. At the top, they’re basically in the tree canopy. There is a feeling of always being outside in nature while also being completely protected.”