sundance

Matthias Heiderich’s Berlin

I am obsessed with Matthias Heiderich’s cropped square photos of Berlin’s buildings. Using color and composition, the photographer creates patterns and abstract images that may not obviously be architecture and the city’s skylines. Having just returned from Berlin last week it’s quite remarkable just how perfectly he captures the modern feel and cool, geometric shapes of [...]

Hollywood stars in Japanese commercials

Although famous actors don’t like to broadcast it, for one to protect their public image, they often go overseas to star in silly commercials, especially in Japan. Thanks to YouTube this is no longer a secret. In fact it was a plot device used in LOST IN TRANSLATION where Bill Murray’s character “Bob Harris” finds [...]

Mobile graffiti van

Art collective Everfresh Studio built this tongue-in-cheek service van outfitted with all the gear and material, such as spray paint, masks, ropes, wire cutters necessary for a team to infiltrate and graffiti bomb a neighborhood. The van is also outfitted with a boombox to provide the accompanying soundtrack. [Via]

Katrina Cottages reused as permanent residential and commercial structures

Ever thought about picking up a FEMA trailer for a permanent home? Doubtful… these temporary housing units that became famous after Hurricane Katrina not only weren’t designed for permanent residence, but have all the character of, well, government housing.

But those trailers weren’t the only housing option available to storm and flood victims: the Katrina Cottage was developed in Jackson, Mississippi weeks after the storm as both a “dignified alternative” to those white trailers. The cottage had all of the emergency preparedness features of the trailers — modular and easily transportable — but also were designed for transition to permanent structures (that could be built out if an owner desired).

Hair is growing back on Broadway

The classic anti-war hippie musical of the 1960s, Hair, won’t stop growing! After a Central Park revival scored three years ago, it moved to Broadway and won a Tony award, and now it’s back there again in the same production, but with some new cast members and fresh energy.

I just called the show’s legendary cowriter, James Rado, to untangle exactly what’s going on here and throw some conditioner on it.

Me: Hi, James. Is the show’s anti-war message still relevant?

Rado: Very intensely. People want to think about other things in our mutli-faceted culture that offers so many distractions, but this thing of war still hangs over us. It plays to that part of our consciousness.

Naked News: Michelle Bachmann promises not to watch porn or cheat

• Study finds that sex keeps getting better in a relationship…though for women it takes 15 years.
• Super Gonorrhea: scientists discover antibiotic-resistant STD.

Jell-O Mold Competition winners!

The extremely awesome annual Jell-O Mold Design Competition was held in late June, but for those who didn’t attend or didn’t know it was going on (I forgive you this time), photos of the winning colorful jiggly treats have just been released and they do not disappoint. As a precursor, this is not your grandma’s Jell-O (you will see no bits of food floating in a big, bulbous, gelatinous mountain), this ain’t even Bill Cosby’s Jell-O – remember those wimpy letter molds everyone in the commercials thought were so exciting? Girl, please – you’re gonna have to try a little harder than that.

The art of the LEGO brick

New York-based artist Nathan Sawaya takes LEGO bricks, the building block of our youth, and creates sculptures that evoke a slightly uncanny or eerie emotion.

Photo series of people texting

Joe Holmes snapped this amusing photo series succinctly titled “Texters,” which focuses its lens on various residents of New York City texting. [Via]

Cindy “yawn” Sherman at the Venice Biennale

In “ILLUMInations,” the main exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale, lies a small gallery with walls covered floor to ceiling by larger-life-than photographs of Cindy Sherman in dress-up, framed by a background of blown-up images of 18th-century pastoral engravings. In typical Sherman style, she uses wigs and costumes to assume different roles, though in the case of “Murals,” the roles aren’t as clear as her usual easily identifiable stereotypes. First, we have Sherman in a baggy, Band-Aid colored body suit of naked woman. The breasts and pubic hair are rudely constructed. They look like something a child would make if children made naked body suits.She holds a sword at her crotch, suggestively pointed upwards, ever ready to juxtapose images of female sexuality with the power traditionally ascribed to the male phallus – an association so obvious and overdone by this point it teeters on boredom.

Front yard garden may earn Michigan woman jail time

Off the top of my head, I can only think of one way that growing plants will get you arrested… but Julie Bass of Oak Park, Michigan, doesn’t have any illegal substances growing in her front yard. The raised beds and vegetable plants she does have, however, have earned her a misdemeanor citation from the city… and a potential punishment of 93 days in jail!

Love Your Vagina the green way

Mooncup, the UK-based (but internationally distributed) menstrual cup, just released an old-fashioned song on YouTube called “Love Your Vagina.” They asked women to submit nicknames for their genitalia and have amassed an overwhelming list, from which the best terms were taken to make this catchy song. (Get the sheet music and lyrics here; and if you buy the song on iTunes, proceeds will go to a charity chosen by their Facebook fans). Of course the song includes many nicknames for body parts other than the vagina (a.k.a. “bouncing baby escape hatch”), like the clitoris (“little man in a canoe”), the labia (“peachy lips”), the vulva (“downtown dining and entertainment district”). As long as people know the difference, then we guess we can get behind the casual mixing and matching of terms of endearment for various anatomical parts in the same genital neighborhood if that mixing and matching ultimately encourages positive body image. So yay for secret little honey pots everywhere!

Alphabetized Bible

“Alphabetized Bible” is a clever re-conceptualization by Tauba Auerbach of the King James Bible that “investigates the idea that any piece of writing, no matter its intellectual weight, is nothing more than a collection of letters.” The artist deconstructs the characters of the bible and prioritizes them in alphabetical order. She explains: The intention of [...]

Giant comb bike rack

The founders of Knowhow Shop LA, a design studio and cooperative artist space, created and built this 400-pound bike rack for a public art initiative in Roanoke, Virginia. It reminds me of a functional utilitarian Claes Oldenburg piece.

Brazilians and a Transsexual

AMANDA LEPORE – TURN ME OVER from Daniel Wierman on Vimeo.

Amanda Lepore is the world’s most famous transsexual. A former David LaChapelle muse, the feisty NYC legend’s been on the scene for many more decades than her plumped and plucked face suggests. She’s been the face of a Swatch and has walked runways across the globe. She also makes adorable bubble gum pop like this new record “Turn Me Over.”

Remembering Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly ranks high on my list of favorite artists, right alongside his friend and fellow artist Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he shared a studio as well as a propensity for cat scratch marks of paint and pencil. His seemingly haphazard compositions have held me captivated in museums, where I have stood fixated, letting my eyes roam his great expanse of canvas until my feet became so tired that I actually sat down on the floor – an ardent devotee. This particular experience happened early in high school, when seeing a Twombly after years of studying only formalist, realistic and namely old portraiture and landscapes left me stunned, transfixed, as if anchored to the space in front of the painting by a force beyond my own.

Ai Weiwei’s photos of New York City

Currently on display at NYC’s Asia Society Museum are a selection of 227 photographs (curated from thousands) snapped by artist Ai Weiwei of daily life during his residency here in the Big Apple in the 1980s. This is the first exhibition of his NYC photographs outside of Beijing. “Mr. Ai worked as a street artist [...]

Damn You, Autocorrect!

The best forwarded email we’ve gotten in a long time is, by far, the collection of ichat and text excerpts from DamnYouAutoCorrect.com. We received the forward in public, which made the sheer joy of secretly reading it all the sweeter: we’re talking uncontrollable, tear-spilling giggles. That’s because autocorrect accidents are, of course, the best when they are sex-related…and totally inappropriate…and between family members, especially parents and their children. Don’t waste a second wondering if these are possibly made up, just enjoy the unbridled horror.

Build your own LEGO skull

This is just so cool: Clay Morrow created this LEGO skull. You can build your own by downloading the instructions provided here (pdf). Speaking of LEGO projects, check out this hack of an IKEA table decorated with LEGO bricks to give it a pixelated decorative design.

Sundance ShortsLab

Last summer the Sundance Institute brought the first-ever ShortsLab to Los Angeles, where, for a single day, short filmmakers participated in an immersive workshop experience with some of cinema’s leading producers and directors. The goal of ShortsLab is “to empower the next wave of emerging artists by giving them first-hand insight into the basics of developing their idea, making their film and getting it seen by audiences.” Because that’s the hardest part, right? You may have made the most amazing short film the world has ever known but how do you get anyone to see it? Answering that burning question, as well as all the other unknowns fledgling directors may have are what ShortsLab is all about.

Green tech finds (7/7/11)

Skiing down a Danish incinerator, seaweed for biofuels, and a solar unit that can save the lives of mothers in the developing world… your green tech finds for the week. The solar suitcase: Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic takes a look at the WE CARE Solar Suitcase, a compact solar power unit designed specifically for [...]

Classic Penguin covers mash-up with video games

I really enjoy Olly Moss’s “Video Game Classics” series where he “redesigned covers for some of [his] favourite video games, based on the classic Penguin Marber Grid.” This “marber grid” was a distinctive style guide created by Polish designer Romek Marber for Penguin book covers. [Via]

Dubious product of the decade

As the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case spirals downward into an all-too-familiar he-said-she-said situation — with blame-the-victim rumors thrown in, just for kicks — we are reminded of a product we were unfortunate enough to stumble across the other day. Sold by the Rude Dude Boxers company, our Dubious Product of the Decade is a pair of boxers featuring the slogan “Silence is Golden…Duct Tape Is Silver.”

Netflix envelope art

The notion of using the red Netflix envelopes as a blank canvas is a genius idea, especially for chronic doodlers like myself. Doodlers Anonymous compiled some great examples from various professional and amateur artists. I especially like the sea-scape above by Jovino. This might motivate me to finally getting around to watching my Netflix dvd [...]

Tikkun Olam awards recognize teen gardening advocate

The Hebrew phrase Tikkun olam translates as “repair the world,” and has come to represent the notion of “human responsibility for fixing what is wrong with the world” in the Jewish faith. The Helen Diller Family Foundation and The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco borrowed this phrase for their awards program that recognizes Jewish teens in California for work that embodies Tikkun olam. This year’s winners, which each receive $36,000 for college, or for supporting their philanthropic work, have just been announced, and include young people working on issues ranging from the refugee crisis in Darfur to access to textbooks in Liberia to providing school supplies for disadvantaged youth in Los Angeles.