DG super-friend Jesse Ashlock has a nice piece in I.D. on the prevalence of dirt web—that is, artists and designers (such as Paper Rad and Cory Archangel) using dusty ass technology to make drawings and websites that harken back to the Interbrains, circa 1996.
Image by Petra Cortright.
That image is OMA’s proposal the Hamburg Science Center. And I think it perfects a strain of architecture I’ve been noticing lately: Sci-Fi Brutalism. Namely, it’s the highly formal, Brutalist architecture of the 1950s-1970s, but updated with a post-utopian (post-apocalyptic?) feel—these are buildings worthy of Bladerunner. But don’t take my word for it. Check out the backstory…
From a new museum in France, filled with creatures like this.
Because of France, Americans know that high taxes get you massive bureaucracy. But if they knew you ALSO got massive robotic elephants, we’d have socialism over here in a jiffy. Dark Roasted Blend via Boing Boing.
Congrats to everyone who picked “terrorists” and “freedom” as your words to drink to tonight. You’ve had 27 shots of Jim Beam. Anyway, it’s a handy list to have for next year.
Well, I thought the worst was Howard Kurtz’s poor-me routine about not getting round-the-clock access to the Obama campaign. (Al Giordano nailed my response to this.) But Kurtz’s article is nothing compared to Gail Collins’s mind-blowing (and not in a good way) Op-Ed “Beyond the Fringe,” which insults the intelligence of anyone who would vote for a so-called “second-tier candidate.” Why would anyone vote for Mike Gravel? she asks. Um, I don’t know Gail … maybe they don’t like people like you telling them how to vote!
Ask any record junkie about his (gender independent) obsession, and you’ll discover collecting those bulky, dusty things has as much to do with the artwork as the unmatched analogue quality. As with any obsession, it eventually makes its way to the blogo-sphere. Here are three quality resources for cruising record sleeves in virtual reality.
Sleevery: Sleevery is a place for members of “Dream Chimney” (whatever that is) to post album artwork. Although not blatantly stated, the selection seems to lean more towards the absurd/bizarre.
LP Cover Lover: LPCL is in blog format and much more organized.
Sleevage: Sleevage is the only one of these three to actually comment on the design, providing some trivia about the artist or studio who designed these sleeves. Sometimes slevage draws comparisons which otherwise would go unnoticed as in the case of Justice and T.Rex
I basically never use the blog to trumpet the stuff I write elsewhere, but I saw this sculpture by Ryan Johnson, titled “A Firm Handshake” and thought it would be perfect to illustrate this comment I made on the NY Times’s football blog. Subject: Why did Belichick cheat, and what is going on in that big-ass Croat head of his?
A great data-mining project by Virgil Griffith: He went to Facebook, found people’s favorite books, and plotted them against the average SAT score at their college. Do check out the link—the chart is massive. But some thoughts on Lolita as the highest-brow choice:
Via Art Fag City. More great work at Guild & Greyschul. You know the place. Greyschul Castle? It’s run by Skeletor and his crew.
George Packer’s piece in this week’s New Yorker, on the differences between Barack and Hilary, is essential for anyone undecided. Why: With so much inside-baseball coverage, what’s been lacking until now is a convincing, non-retarded dichotomy that isn’t crafted by pundits to aid lazy voters. To wit:
