I was in Utsunomiya, Japan, being waited on by a monkey named Fuku-chan.
Archive for 2010
For some reason, the universe decided that today was the day that I should articulate exactly why I like the music of Joanna Newsom. Over the course of the day, I found myself involved in three wholly separate conversations (One…
3.3.10
Japanese urban legend: the cursed Kleenex commercial.
Cursed or not, that is easily one of the creepiest commercials ever.
2.28.10
Great half-hour long documentary exploring the 'Adult Fan of Lego' community, available in HD on Vimeo. Awesome.
This past fall, almost 9 years after my younger brother Chris was killed in a traffic accident, my parents and I finally worked up the nerve to clean and organize the contents of his room. Among the various treasures we…
Alternate title: “My wife is a little bit insane.”
Not seen in this video: The rapid-fire, high-pitched volleys of “HI!” that occurred when she was being repeatedly ‘next’-ed by other chatrouletters.
2.17.10
"Deedee! What are you doing in my lah-boar-ah-tory?!"
A few weeks ago, our Wii died. I called Nintendo, spoke with a representative, and ended up taking advantage of their Repair service. All told, it would be out of commission for approximately ten days. Clearly, this is a sad…
2.9.10
A unique cover each by Ware, Dan Clowes, Ivan Brunetti, and Adrian Tomine. Supposedly there's a secret message hidden amongst them as well.
2.6.10
A book dealer’s observations on the pricing insanity that follows a celebrated author’s death.
"Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell."
2.5.10
Giant Robot Magazine Needs Help.
Easily my favorite magazine for the last 10 years or so.
2.3.10
Good video overview of James Marks’ newest venture: SPUR studios.
Like a mini Russel Industrial Center for the Ypsi / Arbor area. These are exactly the kinds of things Michigan needs.
A few weeks back I saw an interesting music app written up on lifehacker, and I bookmarked it to download and play around with during some of my ample free time. That app was RGBMusicLab, and it is no…
2.1.10
Why now? Did Salinger's passing shake him up? Regardless, I bet Nevin Martell is pissed.
I happened upon the Growing Up Heroes tumblr in my internet travels whilst in the process of digitizing a big ‘ol box of family photos. The design is a little rough, but it’s a great concept: user-submitted photos of…
1.26.10
Fiona Apple and Jon Brion cover Billie Holiday as a part of a Haiti benefit at Largo.
I would buy an album of recordings like this.
1.26.10
90’s surf rock giants Man… or astroman? to reunite.
Key: Original lineup, which I only got to see once, at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit. "It was not atypical for Man or Astro-Man? to arrive at a club, set up for 5 hours, play a show as hard as you possibly could, break down for 3 hours and talk to everyone until the last kid left, drive to the next city overnight, wake up at 10:00 AM and do some fanzine interview, play on the local college radio station shortly after lunch, then do an in-store thing at 4, go to the club and set up, then (if the club was over 21) do a short 20 minute full stage show for underage kids when the clubs would be closed during our soundcheck, and then finally play our full show again and repeat the process the next day. We thought that was what every band did."
1.25.10
Design for chess pieces in which their top-down view serves as a diagram for legal moves.
I love this idea, but I'm not particularly informed on the comings and goings of the chess world, so I have no idea if this is something that's been done before. I think the king and pawn designs could use a little tinkering… this would be a great assignment to put in front of industrial design students.
By some strange series of events, seven whole seconds of a song on which I played drums ended up in the tail end of a Ford ad (Online only, but still):
This ad is one in a series called…
1.23.10
Pixar animator Angus MacLane’s ‘Cubedudes’ – Lego likenesses of pop culture characters.
Something for nerds of all stripes.
One of the pieces of ‘bumper’ art on tonight’s episode of Conan’s Tonight Show was the piece below, expertly echoing the ‘circular shorthand’ style that Chris Ware has used in a number of strips and in two animated shorts…
1.20.10
A great idea perfectly summarized in a narrative sketch.
1.20.10
Rosy report on the progress of the Detroit – Ann Arbor light rail project.
They claim it'll be running by year's end. I am skeptical, but would *love* to be wrong on this.
1.15.10
Gallery 1988’s He-Man inspired art show.
The caliber and scope of their themed group shows lately is nuts, and the online promotion is unparalleled: clear, high quality photos of all pieces in the show with prices and up-to-date availability directly beneath. Seems simple; no one does it.
This past spring I was lucky enough to spend a week visiting a friend who was living in Japan. I’ve slowly been working my way through the digital and physical debris that followed me home, and one item has emerged…
1.11.10
Microsite promoting the release of Chris Ware’s ‘Jimmy Corrigan’ in Chinese.
Perfectly disorienting.
1.11.10
Looks like someone really took care integrating the translated text into the look of the pages.
1.11.10
Fantagraphics designer Jacob Covey teases possible authoritative Art Chantry collection.
This would be my dream book. Please lace it with lots of artist commentary a la the Chip Kidd monograph!
1.11.10
Looks like it may even be in color! My well-worn photocopied edition is breathing a sigh of relief.
One of the best gifts left under the tree by my lovely wife Sarah this year was the Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater Lego Architecture Kit.
I’ve previously purchased and assembled…
My wife played the current number one song on Billboard’s Hot 100 for me today, because she “thought it would make [me] mad.” The song is Ke$ha’s ‘Tik Tok,’ and she was right, primarily because I was dumbfounded…
I stumbled upon the following bit in the latest issue of the New Yorker and had to share, because the full article isn’t available online anywhere (Abstract can be found here). Google’s experimental OCR converter did most of…
1.3.10
For 40 years, Archer has given any project without an official catalog number (ie independent releases) an internal (sequential) number that is pressed into the vinyl – meaning this list will be very useful from a music history / chronology perspective.
1.2.10
Alan Parsons is offering a series of documentaries on audio production for download / streaming.
Kind of insane! The hyper-infomercial feel of the trailer is a bit of a turn off, but we'll see.
1.2.10
Lego launches iphone app to turn photos into Lego mosaics.
Long ago there was a web-app version of this that generated greyscale mosaics you could buy. Needs a "buy this mosaic" button!