My brother and I like to collect weird headlines. I think I’ve won with this one from The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/12/3?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

I love weird logos. This one is from “Great White” style copy paper from a vendor. I like that they’ve tried to cram everything in: oh, it’s called “Great White” so add a shark, also it’s recycled so throw that in there, but people don’t want to think it’s recycled shark bits, so put a memo in there. There — perfect!

Got posted as the “Find of the Day” — fitting for 911.
http://www.foundmagazine.com/comments/2322

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Found this on the subway this morning (December 11 2006), and sent it off immediately to FOUND magazine (http://foundmagazine.com/); not as good as the shopping list my brother found that included items such as “nipple shields” and “Kill Bill 2″.

We all know that the Japanese are cooler than we are, but they even have cooler art supplies. When we went to Seattle I found a Japanese bookstore and a cool little Pentel Aquash set that comes in a little case; I’ve had the single color brushpens before, but the set is so much cooler. Even a lazy sketcher like me can have fun with these beasties (click on the images for bigger versions:

Directions while in Seattle:

Sketches on a bus out to Long Island:

My friend Dave had seen these amazing little videos while he was in Japan (see his neat little movie about hitchhiking in Japan: http://professorbright.com/tohoku/index.html) and found them recently. Now, someone has put them on YouTube. It’s impossible not to blown away by it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pAmVipomcA&NR=1

There are times that you think maybe the editors of newspapers let the guys from The Onion take over for the day. Two recent examples — one from Yahoo and another from the Times (good to see Kenneth Starr staying focused on important things, and good to see the Supreme Court tackling the hard issues).

One of the best things about having a wedding is getting to see AWFUL examples. Here is a very tender site of well-intentioned geeks: http://www.geocities.com/jediwedding/photos.html
All credit goes to Marite for finding this gem. Her finding it, and her appreciating yet vetoeing of it as a theme, is more proof of her awesomeness.

A couple of the best:

A great article from Modern Painters, November 2006:

One of the reasons California, and Los Angeles in particular, are challenging and unusual places is their persistence in conjuring a multiplicity of ideologies that appear to take concrete social form. Los Angeles projects an elastic quality, like that of images or a rubber band; it can snap back and forth from the politically radical to the politically conservative. The ideology of each blurs to the point where no one can tell the difference between the two, much less notice that the language and discourse produced by these positions only pretends to move, never escaping confinement with its own mirror image.

Faced with a world more fantastic than anything in any gallery or museum, dominated and defined by absurd wars that threatened to rage without end, what could be more delusional than claiming that contemporary art has the capacity to create social change? It’s not that I doubt the sincerity of any artist who makes work that is socially or politically relevant. What concerns me is the consensual lie we live in together, pretending that what we make as artists has any political value outside the artworld, when in truth these so-called politically manifestations are displayed in galleries and museums, bought and sold for the artists’ and institutions’ profit, benefiting no one else. A classic argument of neoliberalism suggests that preaching to the converted is worthwhile; I don’t believe it. I find neoliberalism as ineffective as neoconservatism, with both serving only to pacify the guilt and regret of this country’s history at the expense of new ideas that could move us forward. As much as I will argue for the genuine capacity of art to affect who we are as human beings, I can only observe that we have neither the strength nor the courage to commit ourselves in any way that is politically substantive. Who among us is willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others the lifestyle we have come to enjoy from living in an empire?

Fear, not hope, abounds when one believes hope no longer exists. In less comfortable conditions, the opposite holds true. I recently returned from a two-week stay in Cali, Colombia, where I was invited to teach a class at an artist’s space called Lugar a Dudas. The name translates, provocatively, as “room for doubt.” Artist Oscar Muñoz and gallery director Sally Mizrachi have created an aesthetic and political oasis, a utopian reality where need and risk of the highest order go hand in hand. The art center attempts to fill the black hole at the heart of the city, whose infrastructure has collapsed and whose populace is brutalized by endless cycles of violence. Muñoz and Mizrachi have used their own resources to purchase a building and create a program that includes exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, library and computer resources, and a residency program and classes that bring visiting international artists to Cali. While this all might sound familiar to us in the United States, Lugar a Dudas is the only place of its kind in Colombia. Everything that the space offers is free of charge. I would argue that no such institution exists in the United States, acting in such good faith and without ulterior motives.

What worries me is that so much gain is to be made from so-called political art, with careers and fame built on mannerisms that claim a political pedigree. These works regurgitate familiar rhetoric and offer cozy answers so everyone can feel warm and fuzzy and sleep at night. It has been said that people should not be afriad of their governments but governments should be afraid of their people. Similarly, there was a time when artists led the discourse in art—before it became an industry—and art and ideas were dangerous.

This is perhaps the most awesome thing ever on the NYTimes website:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/20070123_STATEOFUNION.html

Look up the words terror, terrorist, terrorists, September the 11th, and other fun ones!

Reminds me of this Weekly Radio Address: http://weeklyradioaddress.com/WRA20060911.htm

I’ve always pleased to see typos on things. Here’s one on the back of a can of Trader Joe’s knockoff of Manhattan Special, the best beverage EVER. Check the note on the middle left.

And here’s one from none other than The New York Times. Apparently the old gray lady has not the SpellCheck. And this made it to the homepage!

The Wooster Collective (http://www.woostercollective.com) is hosting an amazing street art show this weekend in the city. Here are some photos from the opening that I was lucky enough to sneak into thanks to a friend at Cabinet magazine (so subscribe, please — http://cabinetmagazine.org). The photos REALLY don’t do it justice, but click below to see some snapshots.

You know that sense of annoyance you get when you spend a lot of money on a present for a child or cat and they enjoy the box more? My girlfriend may be feeling it now when she brought home the Greatest Thing Ever from the free bookpile at work: Duncan’s Ritual of Freemasonry! Better (possibly) than any Christmas gift!

Freemasons, besides being a guaranteed chuckle for me, have some hilarious illustrations. Check out the gilded cover and Figure below!

So if you see me on the street, give me the Real Grip, My Mark Master Mason!