Posters...

Blanka has some amazing posters from the like of Experimental Jetset & Build. Worth a look because posters are fun. Experimental Jetset's identity work for the Stedelijk Museum is worth a look too: if not for its clarity then for its experimentation with simplicity.

Alison Jackson's Confusion

Alison Jackson is creating fantasies via constructed and deliberately fake photographs. In constructing these fakes she's playing on our society's collective fantasy. The constructions are untrue but they could be true, and therefore the threat of them not being false renders them quite interesting. One looks at her photos, mentally knows that they are false but still wonders if maybe they aren't... is that really the Queen watching 2 horse having sex?

Dan Flavin & Mozart

Dan Flavin is having a retrospective of his work in London at the Hayward Gallery and the little micro-site the gallery put together is beautiful. Check it out. I wish more web design was this simple to navigate, elegant to look at and overall effective... please.


Also it is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthday today. Go cop a Mozart t-shirt.

Ghostface taming the seal

I don't know what's better than these pics. Best photos all year. It's young, this 2006, but these are the benchmark.

Sanaa and the new New Museum.

Sanaa are the architects of the new New Museum. Read more about them here.

First Impressions Count

Well, what do you know?

First impressions count on the web!

Canadian researchers have found out what everyone knew already: Look sharp and/or be charming. Always. Yes, even if you have a website.

DIRTY, HEADFONEHAUS & Slow Design

D*I*R*T*Y is an old website; I haven't been there in years, and they still haven't redesigned their blue sqaure layout. But they've been busy adding content and you know what? I think it's kind of ill they haven't redesigned in years. It's liking finding an old friend and being friends again but you've changed and aged and they're still the same and just as pretty.

HEADFONEHAUS is a blog run by Steven, a friend of my friend Matthew over at Unresort. I link up Steven and his mp3 blog partly because he has some excellent music posted and partly because he has a photo of a crocodile up on his blog. It takes a bold man to post a crocodile.

PS. Speaking of DIRTY and they're lack of a redesign all these years, I just noticed this interesting article about slow design by Michael Bierut designer at Pentagram and founder of the design blog Design Observer. Found over at TED Blog.

Give it a read and give me the gist in a haiku.

Pencils are the new Pixels

Phil is killing it, with his hand made typography experiments, over at Lake Relax.

Lampeluna

File Lampeluna under design so nice it makes go woo! And they're Polish to boot.

Rock Me

No Doubt - Rock Steady & Neil Diamond - Rock Me Gently

The two tracks above go together. They're from two very different genres (they're still both pop songs) from two very different generations (1960's vs 2001) - because both songs are essentially on the same topic - and both have this wonderfully amazing funk undertone. The guitar on the Diamond track gets in to a groove and listen for that cheesy synthesizer too. Similar sounds are apparent in the No Doubt track right from the 1st bar. Coincidence? For sure.

Faena Hotel & Universe

Philippe Starck went out and created a designer-iffic hotel in Argentina called Faena Hotel & Universe. Mostly I just wanted to post the above photo. That's hot.

"Staying in" is the new "going out"

Last week, walking along Bathurst I saw some posters for some sort of new theatre production (or something) and it was called "Staying in is the new going out" and I thought it was a fun and clever twist on the way things are supposed to be, how one is supposed to live and how we are supposed to entertain ourselves. Therefore it's interesting to me that I receive this newsletter from trendwatching.com and it's all about the growing trend of the elite middle class and their trend to living it up at home. The array of products available is really interesting, everything from a walk-in-wine-cellar & beer-on-tap to residential-elevators and most curiously private rooms.

It makes me think that some of us humans are living really rich. And we are. But that doesn't stop us from aging and here I digress.

I just turned 29 and I'm getting older, we all are, and I'm on the verge of being 30. I don't really think it's much of big deal. Our culture places a huge premium on youth and to get old is bit of taboo. I personally think it's kind of sad that getting old is this bad and nasty thing that is combated liposuction and chin tucks and multi-vitamins. As baby boomers age, we'll probably just being hearing about this anti-aging phenomena. I don't really know I'm trying to say right now, but I'll some it up like this: Be happy to have life, and a warm bed and remember your whole past and please, act your age.

My temple needs a sponsor

Architecture, design and sculpture conflationist Thomas Heatherwick is killing it. The above is a sculpture called B of the Bang. It's scale alone is impressive. But if you really want to be impressed, check out the Buddhist Temple he's building: crazy.

Riders on the Storm

First post for the oh six and it's music. Old music. Classic western world existentialist themed and everything. I'm posting this song because it goes well with what transpired in my life today.

The Doors - Riders on the Storm

I was showering my sweaty self in the shower after working out, and when I turned off that hot water and dried my wet skin, I went to blow dry my hair because that's what mom would tell me to do. When my hair was dry, I just started to sing along to this familiar song and then whistling to that keyboard solo.

I'm about to have an amazing year. I wish that for you too.

Why old is the new New

I don't know if this allowed but here I go: quoting Karen Wright, Editor & Publisher at Modern Painters, quoting Robert Rauschenberg from an article written by Rosetta Brooks on "Why old is the new New":

"Y'know, there's a moment for everyone when you fall into your own shadow and the fact is that it's your shadow and you're forced to live in it. And this is nothing to celebrate or not celebrate. It simply is."

It sounded smarter when I read Karen write it, then when I write it myself but at least I got a chance to post the BMW 7 Series. Damn beautiful, it is.

the good and the bad

THE YOUTHS ARE SO COLD

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rockonski says:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670033375/qid=1135830699/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9630478-4955926?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

rockonski says:
i got this for xmas from my mom

rockonski says:
it has big words in it. like "culpable"

rockonski says:
i had to look that one up.

camillo says:
ha

rockonski says:
and i thought, i was part of the 5% - i dunno man

camillo says:
i use culpable all the time

rockonski says:
that dude diamond, he knows alot and has big words to back it up.

camillo says:
the thing is when you take as many english courses as i took

camillo says:
you get tired of looking up words

rockonski says:
ha

camillo says:
and just glean the meaning through context

camillo says:
and end up using them even though you don't fully know what they mean

camillo says:
like i'd look em up after i realized i'd used it in a paper

rockonski says:
haha

rockonski says:
i thought culpable was like capable

rockonski says:
and then i thought to myself: just make sure.

camillo says:
ha

rockonski says:
glad i did.

camillo says:
that's when i realized you can get away with anything

camillo says:
once you write it stylishly enough

rockonski says:
ha

camillo says:
cause they're grading on a curve

rockonski says:
they're skimming too

camillo says:
and someone in the class is still writing sentences like 'i think the author is trying to say...'

*

Just in from Nassau...

The One Love Soldiers took top prize in the Junkanoo Boxing Day Parade. Woo!

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Also from Nassau, Corey sends these five tracks on the Tribute to the Downbeat Riddim: One Two Three Four Version

Phestive Photo

Unpretentious and dare I say: art. - care of Complex Magazine.

Alive in Joburg

This short film from Spy Films tackles racism and xenophobia employing a fact versus fiction method that makes it worth the 6 minutes to watch it.

Toronto Street Fashion dot Com

Honestly, I don't know who the people behind this are - I found out about their website just now by accident - but their badly designed website is killing it.