It's a little belated, but I just wanted to give a happy birthday shout here to Krunky Munky.
Gothamist is claiming that this new humorous mural on the corner of Grand and Wooster in downtown Manhattan is courtesy of infamous street artist Banksy and executed by the painters at Colossal Media, the same company responsible for all those hand painted billboards in Soho for H&M, among others.
Artist Ryan Cashman created this neat film of a green LED alien playing the piano in San Diego. [vimeo http://vimeo.com/1185346]
If you're wondering how on earth this was produced, Cashman explains:
I wrote the music and recorded it first. The frames were photographed with a Canon Rebel using 20-30 second exposure time. I used a small green LED keychain light to draw each frame. Once all the positions were photographed they were strung together and synchronized to the music in After Effects.
[Via]
David Ignatius of the Washington Post points out how McCain has compromised his own principles shaped by the military culture when he made the shotgun desperate decision to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate:
In the military culture that shaped John McCain, there is no more important responsibility than the promotion boards that select the right officers for top positions of command. It's a sacred trust in McCain's world, because people's lives are at stake.
[...]
McCain made the most important command decision of his life when he chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee. Two weeks later, it is still puzzling that he selected a person who, for all her admirable qualities, is not prepared by experience or interest to be commander in chief. No promotion board in history would have made such a decision.
The takeaway from all of this--as it's increasingly evident and clear that Palin is unfit to be one heartbeat away from being president--is that it's also increasingly clear McCain himself is unfit to be president.
Photographer Jay Maisel purchased 190 Bowery, a six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square-foot building, 42 years ago for $102,000. He still resides there with his wife and daughter. Today it's worth anywhere from $30 million to upwards of $70 motherfucking million. That is an insane ROI.
Along with the usual financial difficulties faced by artists this Manhattan neighborhood back then "was where people ended up, not where they aspired to live." And when Maisel moved in "the main floor was knee-deep in garbage and coated in soot." Despite its unassuming and graffiti marked exterior, today:
The house now feels like a dream world, or a benign version of the vast hotel in The Shining. Hallways go on forever. Rooms are filled with projects in various phases of completion. The renovations, mostly done by Maisel, are very “artists live here.”
I want to live there.
Read more here.
This shark with legs was caught off the waters of Malaysia.
What I want to know is where are the FREAKIN SHARKS with the FREAKIN LASER BEAMS attached to their FREAKIN HEADS? Where are those sharks? That's what I want to know...because they will eventually kill us all. KILL US ALL.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh5Lh-tTSZQ]
One of my deep regrets in life is that I was never able to maintain the tongue of my motherland. Soon after I moved to the United States in my childhood I lost my fluency in Korean. Today I cannot read, write, speak, or understand Korean. At all. I blame this on the flawed pedagogy of the public school system. If only I could read Korean today I'd have amazing opportunities to work abroad as well as allow me to explore my heritage vis-a-vis native literature such as this:
As a follow up to my last recap of my trip to San Francisco, here's a video of their sea lions barking away: [flickr video=http://flickr.com/photos/83466411@N00/2870860895]
Let this umbrella express how you feel about rain:
Relatedly
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Larry King interviews Chris Rock. Here are some choice sound bites from it:
I'm proud Barack Obama is running for President. If it was Flavor Flav would I be proud? No. ...There's a proud feeling because of the character of the man.
John McCain could lose half his houses...and sleep WELL!
Every time they let [Palin] talk for more than 4 minutes you actually start feeling sorry for her. It's Like Kim Kardashian on Dancing with the Stars, all that ass and can't shake it.
Only six months too late, but it's good to see that Wordpress, the blog hosting service running this site you are currently reading, now supports embedded Vimeo video formats. Vimeo is a higher resolution video hosting site than YouTube. The Vimeo community is uploading a lot of interesting and great original content and I'm glad to see that I can finally embed their videos here. Now I just wish Wordpress would hurry up and let me embed other formats from Hulu, CNN, etc.
This is a pretty funny PSA featuring Sarah Silverman encouraging her fellow Jews to go to Florida and convince their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama instead of fucking us like they've done in the past two elections. [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1808434]
[Via]
Get drunk and wasted while watching the presidential debates tonight by following these guidelines:
Every time John McCain mentions his POW experience, praise his courage and drink a kamikaze. This one is only for the heavy drinkers.
Every time Obama says change everyone has to switch seats and drink the other person's drink of choice.
Every time John McCain tries to associate Barack Obama with an unsavory character, take a sip of your dirty martini.
Every time someone says bailout you have to finish your drink and pour another.
Read the rest of the rules here.
Previously. On the 6th day in San Francisco, I sampled the city's cultural and tourist trap offerings.
I jumped on the F line old thyme buses that roam the city streets to head to the Fisherman's Wharf with all the other tourists.
I liked the bus's interior lights.
Trees. It looks like Southern California warm out there, but it was a cool nearly all the time, day or night, in San Fran. So if you go, pack a jacket and some sweaters kids.
The wharf! Or "Yuck" as every local said when I mentioned this place. Whatever. It's a PART OF SAN FRANCISCO. TIMES SQUARE IN YOUR FACE.
One of the few views unobstructed by tourists.
The weather was nice that day.
Alcatraz in the background, and uhm, bird poop in the foreground.
The famous bridge.
Alcatraz was really one way for most of the inmates, except for some.
And then the highlight of the day: A sea lion!
Correction: Sea lions! A whole lotta them and they were barking up a storm too.
Who's watching who? Whom? Huh? What?
Although I was mesmerized by this woman's jacket for awhile. I was wondering whether she won it in some Dr Pepper promotion or...if she purchased it.
This scene is kinda sedate. What could make this more exciting?
A ROCKET BOAT WOULD! YELLOW-ORANGE EXTREME FLAMES IN YOUR FACE BITCHES!
These birds are unimpressed with the whole scene.
This fella is itchy.
Help, I'm falling and I can't get up. SPLASH!
One last view.
While I was roaming this two-level pier stocked with souvenir shops selling bric-a-brac and seafood restaurants with identical menus and claims to San Fran history, I noticed this curious sign that suggested a photo from this location would be ideal. I thought it was a quirky one-time thing.
And then I spotted another. This one is sponsored by Shells Vacation Club. It dawned on me that these might be essentially hidden easter eggs placed all over the pier. And I wanted to find them all. Kind of like a Pokemon Waldo.
Photo spot!
Photo spot! (I actually kind of do like this photo...)
Sea lion skeleton.
View of the sea lions resting from the second level.
I came across this notice affixed to the door of a closed shop there. No surprise, I was wondering what the fuck a Russian-centric gift shop was doing at this place. Not sure nesting dolls would be a hot item for tourists there.
Photo spot!
Photo spot!
I don't know why these things seem like such a rip off to me.
I was in full tourist mode so I had to order the clam chowder. Like I said there were like 10 restaurants there and to me they seemed identical. So I ended up just choosing a random one.
Done with the wharf, I took one of the famous trolleys back. Destination: SFMOMA aka the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Wood seats in the car.
I came mainly because I wanted to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit that was temporarily showing here. I had studied a bit of her in college but never had an opportunity to see her work in person.
This was hanging inside near the entrance. Not sure who created this.
I'm just going to post with minimal if any commentary the photos of the pieces I liked and was allowed to take photos of. I got yelled out countless times by security guards there though.
I love this.
Tony Bennett was also roaming the museum with a couple assistants or something. The guards were all very excited to see him. I was too, although frankly I didn't recognize him when I first saw him. It was only when one of the guards excitedly whispered to me, "Mr. BENNETT!" I could only snap this photo of him.
I really want this photograph.
Vanish.
For JH
Museum entrance.
Always. You ALWAYS double down.
Installation in progress.
Hilarious.
As soon as I walked into the Frida wing, I snapped this photo. Immediately after, I got a "NO PHOTOGRAPH" warning from a guard.
As a great surprise, the museum also featured a nice collection of contemporary pieces from Chinese artists. Check them out:
Right after I took this photo, I got yelled at again by a security guard informing me that NO photographs are allowed AT ALL in this special exhibit. Haha. I can't believe I was able to photograph so many of them. And I wasn't hiding it either. As you saw above, I was walking up close and getting details. Ahh, ignorance can be bliss sometimes, especially when it pertains to rules.
The End
The American Society of Magazine Editors have chosen their finalists for the 2008 Best Cover of the Year contest. It comes down to these three covers and the winner will be announced on Monday, October 6.
Click here to view the finalists in the other sub-categories such as celebrity, fashion, and news covers.
This coin-operated lamp designed by Jethro Macey is "the first product in a range based on the concept of values and reward, it subtly heightens awareness of consumption through design."
[Via]