June 10, 2015
Green Leader
Green Leader, a comic by Daniel Warren Johnson (Single Link Star Wars)
Art is not a mirror, art is a hammer...
… a solid gold sledgehammer, that Liberace uses to destroy a piano.
Hamzilla
Tiny hamster becomes a giant monster! Rivals the Goodies' Kitten Kong, and is also much shorter. Previously: 1, 2 and 3.
the age of distraction
But we would miss much by using identity politics to mock Crawford’s gendered vision. His critique of our so-called knowledge economy is a thoughtful extension of the powerful 19th-century Romantic rejection of the triumphs of modernity. John Ruskin, writing in the 1850s on "The Nature of the Gothic," emphasized that all classes require a "right understanding … of what kinds of labour are good for men, raising them, and making them happy." Looking around industrializing England, proudly preening in disruption, he wrote: "It is not that men are ill fed, but that they have no pleasure in the work by which they make their bread, and therefore look to wealth as the only means of pleasure." Although he doesn’t cite Ruskin, Crawford is his heir.[more inside]
The Archaeology of Teaching
Workers renovating Emerson High School in Oklahoma City recently discovered slate blackboards, still complete with chalked lessons and drawings, which had been covered up by the installation of new boards in early December, 1917. An additional photogallery (and autoplaying video) can be found here (slightly different versions of that page here and here).
Mac or PC? Coke or Pepsi? Peanut butter first, or jelly first?
There are two kinds of people. (Those who like minimalist design and those who don't.) There are two types of people in the world. (Those who like Buzzfeed and those who don't.) There are two kinds of people in the world. (Those who like movie supercuts and... well, who doesn't?)
I will defend myself to the bitter, un-toasted end.
The Great Bagel Manifesto: in which J. Kenji López-Alt—kitchen guru, national treasure, and relatively recent transplant to the West Coast—rants about bagels. [more inside]
Bad Art
A Dutch detective and Berlin police spent months searching for art commissioned by Hitler that went missing after German reunification.
Officials finally recovered the dubious works in raids last week -- here's how they did it.
Officials finally recovered the dubious works in raids last week -- here's how they did it.
Nervous Keyboarding Pro
BMXer vs Silverdome
Abandoned Silverdome Becomes BMX Dream Playground - Watch the final session that will shut down the abandoned stadium outside Detroit. Includes photos. (previously)
More like a six foot turkey.
"I rediscovered my Jurassic Park dossier when cleaning out a cupboard... At around 14 years old, I tried to charm a girl by saying if she ever wanted to know anything about dinosaurs, she could come to me." (via)
Artisanal Tech Satire-- kind of like a llama you've never heard of
"Who wrote this amazing, mysterious book satirizing tech startup culture?" "A mysterious little book called Iterating Grace is floating around San Francisco right now. At least a dozen people have received the book in the mail—or in my case, by secret hand-delivery to my house. (Which is a little creepy.)
The artifact itself consists of a 2,001-word story interspersed with hand-drawn recreations of tweets by venture capitalists and startup people like Chris Sacca, Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Sam Altman, and others.
The story’s lead character, Koons Crooks, goes on a spiritual quest by contemplating the social media feeds emanating from the startup world. It leads him to a Bolivian volcano and a chillingly hilarious final act with some cans of cat food, a DIY conference badge, and a pack of vicuñas (which are sort of like llamas)."
Garry Winogrand- Photographer of the streets
Things Garry Winogrand Can Teach You About Street Photography An amazing post about the life and work of Garry Winogrand, a street photographer (who HATED that phrase) who took millions of photographs in his lifetime--so many, in fact, that he died without seeing half a million of them.
This is why we can't have nice things
"It’s legendary for being the most hated building in Paris."
and somehow pretend that everything is all right
Anna & Eve is a photo project by artist Viktoria Sorochinski exploring relationships between mother and daughter.
“I write while I’m walking, on little scraps of paper,”
Juan Felipe Herrera, From Farm Fields to Poet Laureate [New York Times]
The Library of Congress announced on Wednesday that Juan Felipe Herrera, a son of migrant farmworkers whose writing fuses wide-ranging experimentalism with reflections on Mexican-American identity, will be the next poet laureate. The appointment of Mr. Herrera, who will succeed Charles Wright, comes as the country is debating immigration, a recurring subject of his work, which has been collected in books like “Border-Crosser With a Lamborghini Dream” and “187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border.”[more inside]
"but was that really murder, though?" "was that really assault?"
This is hard, this divided attention. But it isn't just an emotional and intellectual focus divided by half. This is no mere doubled consciousness. Race in this country, with each successive generation, with every historical echo, and for all our technological advancement, has become a prism. This new racial prism — this 24-hour access to every horrible, three-dimensional detail of black trauma, requires constant, multiplicitous division. I can anticipate occasional euphoria, but I will always do so with the understanding that injustice will disrupt my joy. That is its own kind of violence, a forced splintering of identity, intellect, and emotion.On the second day of her successfully crowdfunded trip to the THREAD at Yale program, stacia l. brown wrote an essay on race, consciousness, and black trauma in America as viewed through The Racial Prism. [more inside]
Unmaking Things
Unmaking Things: A Design History Studio is a creative space for exploring innovative approaches to the study of design and objects. The site is founded, edited, and run by students on the Royal College of Art / Victoria and Albert Museum History of Design MA course and covers a diverse range of topics – from product design to critical theory; from the history of decorative arts to analysis of space. The student editors and site design change annually. New articles are posted every Monday and Thursday.
Frantumaglia
Don't mistake activity with achievement
Aspirational parents condemn their children to a desperate joyless life From infancy to employment, this is a life-denying, love-denying mindset, informed not by joy or contentment, but by an ambition that is both desperate and pointless, for it cannot compensate: childhood, family life, the joys of summer, meaningful and productive work, a sense of arrival, living in the moment.
DOJ Issues Subpoena to Identify Anonymous Blog Commenters
The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has issued a subpoena to Reason magazine, in order to identify anonymous commenters mouthing off about a federal judge. Ken White at Popehat broke the story. [more inside]
Feeling Crankie?
At the very least, Hootie owes them a "Thank You"
As part of their "1995 Week", AV Club has published a special edition of their Expert Witness series focused on the late Columbia House (previously) and their inner workings: Four Columbia House insiders explain the shady math behind “8 CDs for a penny”.
Serena Williams: Dominant, targeted
Like It’s 1999: On Serena Williams’s Dominance and the Passage of Time It’s so rare, in tennis, to watch a player really grow up. I don’t mean “mellow out” or “stop partying” or whatever grow up usually means in sports; I mean develop a fully adult self...
Every Serena Williams win comes with a side of disgusting racism and sexism In the moments surrounding her win, Williams was compared to an animal, likened to a man, and deemed frightening and horrifyingly unattractive. Previously
Every Serena Williams win comes with a side of disgusting racism and sexism In the moments surrounding her win, Williams was compared to an animal, likened to a man, and deemed frightening and horrifyingly unattractive. Previously
GOOOOOOOOOOOL
The oldest and one of most prestigious international football competitions, the Copa America, begins Thursday as hosts Chile play Ecuador. [more inside]
Staggering
New U.S. government research indicates that female military veterans commit suicide at nearly six times the rate of other women and at rates nearly equal to that of male veterans -- a finding that surprised researchers because women are generally are far less likely than men to commit suicide. The findings raise questions about the backgrounds and experiences of women who serve in the United States' armed forces. [more inside]
The most awesome show nobody watched
PREVIOUSLY, on the Aquabats Super Show... (YouTube 4m) Grocery Store Attack - Fighting the aliens from Laserblast - The Thingy [more inside]
Separation Schmeparation
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a bill that defunds the entire state's judiciary if it rules against a law he favors
A polder solution
De Kort used GPS to plow 150 perfectly straight and symmetrical furrows with six foot high ridges between them. In the valleys, he built mini parks and bike paths. He also incorporated art pieces that drew on the history of the project, like “Listening Ear,” a parabolic dish that is large enough to stand in. The sculpture amplifies the ambient sound, a nod to the park’s purpose of deflecting that noise.How Schiphol tries to solve noise pollution: landscape art.
They’ll be your Emmylou
In 2011 they made Patti Smith cry with their rendition of “Dancing Barefoot”, in 2012 they got a standing ovation from Paul Simon for their version of “America”. Yesterday sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, aka First Aid Kit (previously), was back at the Polar Music Prize ceremony, performing "Red Dirt Girl" by this year’s laureate Emmylou Harris. [more inside]
Walter Molino's Worst Case Scenerios
Illustator Walter Molino had an unusually spot-on take of the situations that would provoke maximum anxiety in his viewers.... provided his viewers were terrified of lions. Many parents dread the moment their toddler has to cling to the bumper of a runaway car, or , God forbid, has to fend off an angry lion, or a Nessie,. But who hasn't had a moment of doubt regarding our tightrope walking partner?
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