atlantic & bond

Move it on over

2006-10-01T13:58:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted here, and it's going to be a while before I ever do again, if I do. So if you're wondering what I've been up to lately, check out my new concerns, BklynDad and Observations and Insights

our new apartment

2006-09-06T11:24:00.000-04:00

notlantic nor bond
Uploaded by jeanphony on 28 May '06, 3.52pm GMT+5 PST.

Empanadas, Arepas and deep fried Chicharrón.

2006-08-02T18:16:00.000-04:00

A remote soccer field in Brooklyn is one of the city's best-kept foodie secrets, a cornucopia of hard-to-find Latin specialties.

Every weekend from now through October, hungry New Yorkers in-the-know follow Latinos from the Metropolitan area to a corner of Red Hook for some of the best Hispanic food in the city.

"It's like you're home," said Juan Gomez, a truckdriver from El Salvador who travels from New Jersey on weekends to Red Hook Park for fried pupusas.

At first glance, the food stands look more like a shanty town than an open-air feast, which opened last weekend.

But behind the weather-beaten tarps and scratched-up vans, families from Mexico, El Salvador and other Latin American countries serve up tamales, tacos and other specialties - which rival the soccer games as the park's biggest draw.

Highly... HIGHLY... Recommended. Pic via The Lightning Field. Quote from NY Daily News.

Cape Wind

2006-06-03T09:56:00.000-04:00

While visiting Boston for the weekend, we discovered that offshore Wind Farms are proposed for New England. Apparently there is quite a bit of controversy about the topic. Graphic from "Mass. is urged to lead the way on wind farms."

Playing with YouTube

2006-05-27T01:05:00.000-04:00

Wind farm

2006-05-26T14:40:00.000-04:00

I'm fascinated with these things lately... Photo courtesy of Luke Walker via Unbeige

Happy Birthday to the Boy

2006-05-21T15:12:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Vincent (and his dad) for the photo.

We're 3

2005-11-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

Open House New York

2005-09-27T17:33:00.000-04:00

The third annual Open House New York is taking place Saturday, October 8, and Sunday, October 9.

As part of the city’s Architecture Week, OHNY Weekend opens the doors to some of New York’s most celebrated achievements in architecture and design by providing free public access to 150 exceptional sites, many normally closed to the public, as well as tours, talks, walks, performances and family programs.

For those who don't know, the annual event opens normally inaccessible private buildings to the public for the weekend. It's free of charge, and one of the best opportunities all year long to get a weekend-long architecture fix. Highly recommended.

...and now for something completely different

2005-09-26T13:07:00.000-04:00

Artists erect giant pink bunny on mountain

An enormous pink bunny has been erected on an Italian mountainside where it will stay for the next 20 years.

The 200-foot-long toy rabbit lies on the side of the 5,000 foot high Colletto Fava mountain in northern Italy’s Piedmont region.

Viennese art group Gelatin designed the giant soft toy and say it was “knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool.”

And Gelatin members say the bunny is not just for walking around - they are expecting hikers to climb its 20 foot sides and relax on its belly.

Via Ananova.

Brooklyn Responds

2005-09-20T17:04:00.000-04:00

The fine folks at JellyNYC, Trampoline House, and KEXP (that’s right, KEXP, the Seattle-based public radio station) have put together a two-night showcase of indie music to provide aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The concerts will be held at Southpaw and all proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross, America’s Second Harvest, and Humanity First. Via Greenideas.

Atlantic Antic

2005-09-20T10:33:00.000-04:00

Further proof that interesting things happen on Atlantic Avenue only when I go out of town: The Atlantic Antic street festival is this Sunday.

Come on over for one very crowded mile of local merchants, non-profit organizations, community groups, arts & crafts, and food vendors. There’s even an after party at Magnetic Field.

Not sure? Check out photos from last year on Flickr.

Floating Island

2005-09-14T11:56:00.000-04:00

More on Robert Smithson, from the NY Times.

Robert Smithson, “Floating Island to Travel Around Manhattan Island”
In conjunction with the seminal earth artist’s retrospective on view through Oct. 23 at the Whitney Museum, the Whitney will create one of Smithson’s heretofore unrealized proposals, using the artist’s 1970 drawing called “Floating Island to Travel Around Manhattan Island.” A tugboat will haul a large barge planted with vegetation around Manhattan. Both will be visible from shore at a number of publicized sites on the Hudson, Harlem and East Rivers. The island will sail daily from Saturday through Sept. 25.

Free Public Opening
Saturday, September 17, 5 – 7 pm
Hudson River Park, Pier 46 at Charles and West Streets
Remarks: 6:30 pm

Viewing Schedule: 8 am – 8 pm daily
Saturday, September 17 – September 25

More information available at Whitney Museum of American Art and New York Magazine’s fall art preview. Image from this morning’s Today in New York on WNBC.

Deep deep hole

2005-09-10T17:02:00.000-04:00

When you were a kid, did you ever wonder where you would end up if you dug a hole straight down, through the center of the earth and out the other side. Well, if you started at Atlantic & Bond, this is where you would end up. Find out where your hole would be. Via Captology Notebook.

One lonely house

2005-09-09T13:42:00.000-04:00

More Images of Slidell from WDSU in New Orleans.

Slideshow 1 | Slideshow 2

"There were homes that were totally destroyed and were no longer on the lots," St. Tammany Parrish Sheriff Jack Strain said. "Apartment complexes, with multiple housing units are no longer there. They are totally gone."

Confirmation: Slidell fish camps gone

2005-09-02T19:51:00.000-04:00

Found on the Katrina Information Map. This is an aerial photograph of the area on the north coast of Lake Pontchartrain between Highway 11 and I-10. Via Google Maps Mania. Wired News covers the map in this article, A Disaster Map 'Wiki' Is Born.

New Orleans Fairgrounds Race Track

2005-09-02T00:54:00.000-04:00

Another image of New Orleans... of another favorite place, the New Orleans Fairgrounds Race Track. The infield is the site of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival every spring.

According to a this MSNBC article:

Video of the racetrack broadcast on television showed a roof shorn from the grandstand and significant debris and damage throughout the grounds, with water lapping on the infield and in the barn area. The video footage was shot Tuesday morning, before a levee break on the Orleans Parish line released more water from Lake Pontchartrain into the city.

Click here for an idea of the impact the levee breaks have had on the neighborhood surrounding the Fairgrounds. Images from Digital Globe.

Fish Camps

2005-08-31T08:11:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite places in the world... likely gone now according to reports from Slidell, LA.

Calling the devastation “total”, Schedler said, only slabs remain where dozens of houses were blown down and several feet of water remain in the Slidell Memorial Hospital on Gause Boulevard as well as throughout the old town area off U.S. 11.

Immobile Home

2005-08-22T11:31:00.000-04:00

No time to comment... just thought I'd share this unique solution to the challenges of urban living. From the New York Times (reg. required)

Smithson at the Whitney

2005-07-30T15:41:00.000-04:00

Recently seen: Robert Smithson at the Whitney.

Originally organized by Eugenie Tsai for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, this retrospective will be at the Whitney through October 23. In addition to some of the pieces he created for display in (and critique of) “the white box,” there are several films documenting the creation of his more well known, site-specific, earth art works, like “Spiral Jetty” and a variety of in process drawings, proposals, and instructions on ongoing care. The glimpse these artifacts offer into Smithson’s creative process exposes some of the threads that tie together many of his pieces. This alone makes the show worth seeing. And finally, something more to look forward to, from New York Magazine’s review.

Next September, the Whitney and an organization called Minetta Brook will present one of Smithson’s unrealized proposals, based upon a drawing called “Floating Island to Travel Around Manhattan Island.” A tug will pull what looks like a chunk of Central Park (itself a kind of island) around Manhattan. The idea is whimsical, of course, but also telling. In Smithson’s universe, nothing is solitary, isolated, or fixed. Even the islands move.

Picturing Augusta

2005-07-27T17:35:00.000-04:00

Maybe it’s the heat this summer, but I can’t seem to get my mind out of the South. So, further exploring the theme of Southern culture, I’ll share a recent find called City of Dust. This blog showcases photographs and stories primarily of Augusta, Georgia—where I spent most of the hot summers of my childhood. Quoting the author:

Augusta is the second largest city in Georgia, but you wouldn’t know it by driving through downtown. The city center, although attempts at revitalization are underway, is largely vacant, the victim of suburbanization and the desire of most folks to shop in safe, pleasant malls. The city is old, worn-out, run-down, and oft-maligned. But, you know, the town has got soul.

One of my favorite Augusta stories is of the Haunted Pillar (above):

In 1829 a visiting preacher was said to have been mocked and scorned by Augusta’s citizens. He swore a curse on the city, predicting that only one pillar of its market would stand and, as if that wasn’t enough, even the pillar would be cursed. On February 8, 1878 a cyclone destroyed the entirety of the lower market and all that remained was one pillar, which was moved to its present location at Broad and 5th shortly afterwards. That’s almost fifty years after the original curse, so either the preacher was patient or believed that revenge is a dish best served cold. Be that as it may, people that have touched the pillar are reported to have been variously struck by lightning, felled by heartattacks, and killed in car crashes within minutes.

No word on whether City of Dust has seen any ill effects from photographing the pillar, but I don’t mind telling you that I’ve never gotten up the nerve to touch it. Though the author has recently moved away from Augusta, his archives of his time there are well worth diving into, starting with his very first post, here.

Self-Taught Artists, the Bible & the American South

2005-07-26T22:50:00.000-04:00

As an expatriate of the South, expressions of southern culture have gained a resonance for me, particularly since moving to New York. Sadly, the exhibition “Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South,” opened and closed before I even knew of it. This inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Biblical Art showcased biblical themes in the work of some of the best known southern folk artists like Howard Finster, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Mose Tolliver, and Clementine Hunter, whose “Frenchie Goin’ to Heaven” is pictured here.

For those of us who missed it, there is an exhibition catalog, and WNYC’s Leonard Lopate hosted a discussion of the exhibition on his May 9th radio program. Also worth checking out is this reposting of a May 11th New York Times article complete with conservative Christian commentary.

Contemporary art (on the street)

2005-07-20T15:05:00.000-04:00

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming... This panel discussion on street art sounds like a pretty interesting event. Organized by the fine folks at Wooster Collective.

THE CITY AS COLLABORATOR
DOCUMENTING CONTEMPORARY ART ON THE STREET
moderated by Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective

Panelists:
KELLY BURNS, I NY,
MARTHA COOPER, Hip Hop Files: Photographs, 1979 to 1984 and Subway Art and
MICHAEL DeFEO, Alphabet City: Out on the Streets.

Join us for a vibrant and exciting exchange of ideas of how street art, has grown from and contributed to our city.

Reinventing Martha

2005-07-20T13:11:00.000-04:00

I rarely discuss work-related issues here, but Grant’s latest post on Martha Stewart piqued my interest and reminded me of a comment that Rebecca made recently when an ad for Martha Stewart’s new show aired. She observed that Martha was capitalizing on her prison experience by reinventing her brand from “Martha Stewart the aspirational (but unattainable) goal” to “Martha the imperfect (and therefore eminently more approachable) woman.”

This is the most apparent in the advertisements for her new show “Martha,” showing a bungling but lovable character who is more friend than icon. From the show description:

With an unscripted and unedited format, there are bound to be some surprises. So, what happens when Martha's carefully laid-out plans go awry?

My favorite bit from the promo—dropping a glass sculpture while working with artist Dale Chihuly. Staged? Who knows, but for me, the transformation isn’t yet ringing true.

This AP article from March lays out the that Martha Stewart empire is attempting.

“Her prison experience can be used as a new and powerful brand asset,” said John Barker, president of DZP Marketing Communications, based in New York. “What prison has done is to make her more fallible. There is this opportunity to make Martha more approachable, more empathetic.”

C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C., agreed. “America is going to find out that they are going to see a new Martha that is more humble, more caring and more understanding of the American female,” Beemer said. “I would say it is a very clever transformation of a business icon into a real person with feelings.”

It’s a good strategy, but as Grant opines, her Vanity Fair interview gives “no indication that Martha Stewart is more interesting or complex.” Hmmm... the hardest part is the execution, isn’t it.

Is Martha transformed, or will she just play transformed on TV.

Set and Drift

2005-07-13T04:00:00.000-04:00

Set and Drift, a set of site-specific art installations, radio transmissions, and video projections sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, opens this Saturday, July 16, with an evening of outdoor concerts and film screenings. The most interesting part: the venue, Governor’s Island.

Purportedly the exhibition was designed to stimulate public interest in the history and possibilities surrounding Governor’s Island. The artists use the island’s forts, mess halls, and officers’ housing as their exhibit space and conceptual material. Each piece deals with the site and its previous military uses in some way.

The detail above is from Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua’s “The Last House to the Left,” an architectural addition to a civil-war era officer’s house on Colonel’s row. Because of the historic nature of the site, the artists weren’t allowed to alter the structure, and had to construct the addition without attaching to the existing house. They had planned to use found materials to create their makeshift museum for objects, images, and sounds but were disappointed to find nothing to work with at the site. “There wasn’t any trash,” Bua told Time Out.

Using the island in this way puts me in mind of Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. Judd envisioned his enclave there as permenant exhibition space for site-specific works by Judd himself and several of his contemporaries. This kind of use is by far the most interesting (but unfortunately the least likely) approach I’ve heard to development for Governor’s Island. Read more about the exhibition in Downtown Express.

The only way on to Governor’ Island is by ferry from the Battery Maritime Building just north of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The ferry runs Tuesday–Saturday and costs between $3–6.

The Knitting Machine

2005-07-04T10:45:00.000-04:00

In a modern artist’s take on patriotism, Dave Cole, a self-described hyperactive sculptor from Providence, RI, spent the weekend knitting an American flag... a really big American flag.

“I’ll be up on a boom lift, throwing the stitches with a 5-foot-long fishing gaff,” Cole reports. “There will be a guy in each excavator, and I'll give hand signals to them: Angle it up, lower it down. A lot of it is just plain fun: Just boys playing with trucks.”

“It’s something a girl could do, in every way a boy could want to do it,” Cole says of “The Knitting Machine.” “It’s bigger, louder, faster, heavier, and more dangerous.“ But that’s not the point, he says. “Dig deeper, and you get to the idea of work, and of identity in work and production, and how work and production relate to the machine, and how the machine relates to national identity.”

The project uses two John Deere excavators holding two aluminum light poles to knit 18-inch-wide strips of felt into a flag 20-feet-wide by 30-feet-long. The work was completed yesterday afternoon, but the flag will be displayed at Mass MoCA until October.

Via Cool Hunting. Quotes above from The Boston Globe.

Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

2005-07-02T14:25:00.000-04:00

For some reason when I‘m snapping away with my camera phone, I take a lot of photographs of corner buildings. Who knows why, but that appears to be a theme. Here’s a sampler of the corners of Boerum Hill (or should I say North Gowanus).

Ghost Bike

2005-06-26T23:52:00.000-04:00

To raise awareness of bicyclists’ right to safe travel, Visual Resistance, an activist art collective, has begun installing these unique memorials to bicyclists killed on the streets of New York.

Last week, a collective of artists called Visual Resistance began using bicycles that have been spray-painted white, called “ghost bikes,” to designate spots where bicyclists have died.

“I feel an affinity with any cyclist who has fallen,” Mr. Caplicki said. “I hope that people can make a connection when they see a riderless bicycle and think about a life that's gone.”

It’s working: quote above from today’ NY Times article “On Roads Where They Fell, Bicyclists Are Remembered.” Photo from Visual Resistance.

delete!

2005-06-25T18:45:00.000-04:00

delete!
Uploaded by Caramdir on 19 Jun '05, 2.15am PST.

Update: Wooster Collective points to more photographs and even a Quicktime VR of the event.

In an indictment of the overwhelming amount of advertising cluttering the landcape in and around Vienna, artists Christoph Steinbrener & Rainer Dempf have created delete! The artists wrapped every advertising sign, company name, and logo, and slogan on Neubaugasse, a Viennese shopping street, in yellow monochrome.

Dempf and Steinbrener argue there’s too much advertising in Vienna, where billboards line many streets and where scaffolding — even on historic buildings such as the famed St. Stephen’s Cathedral — often is covered by oversized ads. Giant rolls of hay serve as stands for advertising signs on fields near highways leading to the city.

“You can’t see the landscape anymore. It hurts the eyes,” Steinbrener said.

Still, the artists did not set out to just conceal the ads — they want to create awareness about them.

“It was important to us to have a bright, highlighting color. Not black or white ... that would have made the signs disappear,” Steinbrener said. “Aside from the visual impact, we wanted to create a discourse about the environment in the public space, and that's happening now.“

Sadly, the installation was removed on June 20, but more photographs can be found on Caramdir's Flickr site and by searching for ‘delete!’ on vienna.metblogs.com.

First seen on Stay Free! Daily, most recently on the Wooster Collective’s blog. Quote from MSNBC’s article “Artists ‘delete’ ads to provoke discussion.”

Fluid form, frozen light

2005-06-24T11:26:00.000-04:00

An interesting idea. FutureFactories, the product of a collaboration between the School of Design Technology at University of Huddersfield, UK, and their former Designer-in-Residence, Lionel Theodore Dean, conceptualizes using CAD and Rapid Prototyping technologies for what Dean calls the “mass individualisation” of a line of pendant lamps.

Using rapid prototyping techniques, it costs the same to produce similar parts as identical ones, so why produce two products the same?

Envisage a future with ’living‘ consumer products, forms that grow, change, and mutate on screen.

At any given moment a product may be frozen creating a unique design, digitally manufactured and delivered to the door.

Via Future Feeder by way of del.icio.us/blackbeltjones.

Long Exposure

2005-06-24T11:05:00.000-04:00

More lovely, simple artworks–this time it’s landscape photography by Frank Grisdale. He uses long, hand held exposures to simplify his subject and reveal the basic elements beneath. Also via Land & Living.

The Long View

2005-06-23T10:24:00.000-04:00

One of the more beautiful satellite images I’ve run across is this Ikonos satellite image of Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty”. The Dia Center is debating if and how best to preserve the work for future generations, but it seems that nature is doing some of the work for us.

For nearly three decades Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” lay underwater in the Great Salt Lake. Since 1999, as drought has lowered the water level, this famous American earth sculpture—a 1,500-foot coil of black basalt rocks—has slowly re-emerged. Now it is completely exposed; the rocks encrusted with white salt crystals are surrounded by shallow pink water in what looks like a vast snow field.

Quote from Melissa Sanford’s article, “The Salt of the Earth”, in the NY Times. Via Pruned, via Land & Living

Unexpected images

2005-06-22T09:37:00.000-04:00

It's not a bug, it's a feature.

Until last August when he fished his camera and tripod from the bottom of a New Mexico pond Eaves owned an ordinary Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera.

After five days of trying everything but mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the lens and viewfinders cleared. He popped in four new batteries, slid the once-wet Sandisk flashcard into place and turned the camera on.

"It fired up like it knew where it was going," the excited former Korean War photographer said.

But when he looked at his Coolpix monitor, the colors were streaked, halos magically appeared, and every time he moved the camera the colors would change. When he photographed a subject, no two photos were alike.

Article at the Lawrence Journal-World. For more photography by Farrell Eaves, go to Bruce Dale's website. Via Make.

The Pizza Connection

2005-06-21T09:27:00.000-04:00

Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but today is the first I've heard of the “Pizza Connection”. Apparently, since the 1960’s the price of a cheese slice and the price of a ride on the subway have paced each other “with uncanny precision.” The bad news is that the price of a slice has recently jumped above $2.00, as the NY Times observes.

Not to alarm New York City subway and bus riders, but a pizza shop around the corner from our Times Square office is charging $2.20 for a plain slice. At a Famous Famiglia parlor a few blocks north, the price is up to $2.25.

This horrifying discovery left us no choice but to place an urgent phone call to Eric M. Bram. He confirmed our worst fears for the subways.

“Are you going to get another fare increase?” he said. “I guess it’s inevitable.”

On this score, there is every reason to heed Mr. Bram, a Bronx-born patent lawyer who moved to Westchester some time ago.

In 1980, he articulated what we have since come to call the Pizza Connection. He noted that, from the early 1960's, the price of a pizza slice - we’re talking here about a no-frills wedge of mozzarella and tomato sauce, unmarred by toppings - matched the cost of a subway ride “with uncanny precision.”

Read the rest of the story in the NY Times article, “Digging Deep for a Slice of the Pie.”

5 story fireball

2005-06-19T16:55:00.000-04:00

So imagine this: You're walking down West Houston Street by the Angelika Theater. It's just about dinner-time. It's a lovely summer evening in New York. Then, just in front of you, a BANG, and a 5 story fireball shoots up out of the subway grate!?!? That's what happened to a friend earlier this week when a ConEd Transformer exploded in front of 18 West Houston Street.

The cause of the transformer explosion that caused the fireball has yet to be determined, according to the paltry news coverage this story is getting. Here's the story from New York Newsday.

Con Edison is still investigating the cause of a transformer explosion at the corner of Mercer and West Houston streets yesterday that left a man injured with second-degree burns and scorched a portion of a 13-story building.

A spokesperson for Con Edison, D. Joy Faber, said that a Con Edison crew was at the site inspecting the vault. "How it happened, that's what we're trying to determine right now," Faber said.

As my friend said, the lack of interest from the media makes you wonder how often this really happens. Scary.

Blogger, Hermitude, was also nearby.

...all of a sudden there's this noise behind me. It sounds like thunder, only up close. I turn around and something has exploded not 10 feet away from me. Along with everyone else, I start running away from the huge ball of fire and smoke. People are yelling something about a bomb.

See the rest of her post here.

The shadow knows

2005-06-19T07:48:00.000-04:00

Ellis parking meter
Uploaded by jeanphony on 19 Jun '05, 4.34am PST.

Street artist ©Ellis G. knows how to control his fear... with chalk. His shadow outlines have been turning up all over the neighborhood, particularly on Smith Street. The back story is classic New York.

About a month ago, artist, Ellis Gallagher, 31, was mugged in the foyer of his Cobble Hill home. "I saw this shadow on the front door," he recalls. "It was this guy with a two-foot-long machete saying 'Gimme your money!'"

The thief made off with $82. Gallagher called the cops, who caught the perp later than night. End of story, if not for an admitted case of posttraumatic stress. "I'd jump every time I saw a shadow," Gallagher says. "That's when I started the drawings–as self medication."

Stop into Apartment 138 for a peek at some of his canvases. Quote from Howard Halle's story in Time Out New York.

New Eats on Smith

2005-06-19T07:28:00.000-04:00

Gravy
Uploaded by jeanphony on 19 Jun '05, 4.06am PST.

A new restaurant called Gravy appears to be nearing the finishing stages on Smith Street. A peek inside showed a full length counter with stools–old school diner style–and a fairly large beer garden with a bar out back.

Who wants to bet that this is yet another Alan Harding project. He seems to be on a mission to open one restaurant for every style of cuisine in the borough. (i.e. Patois, Schnack, Pacifico, La Rosa, Gowanus Yacht Club, Zombie Hut, Sonny's, and formerly Uncle Pho, and Red Rail). Smith street is turning into his own personal food court.

I won't complain too loudly though, since his restaurants are some of my favorites in the neighborhood. And any place called Gravy is O.K. by me.

Grolsch Massacre

2005-06-16T16:11:00.000-04:00

I don't know the story behind this photograph, but it's a shame, a real shame. Via del.icio.us/Moment.

Wooster

2005-06-15T14:30:00.000-04:00

My new favorite site. Lots of insiprational, beautiful, and just plain fun images of street art submitted by readers from all over the world. I have to have some every day! Wooster Collective rocks!

Adilette Blowout

2005-06-14T22:51:00.000-04:00

My favorite pair of sandals just blew out. I guess I saw it coming... I've had them since about 1995. If you've never had a pair of Adilettes I highly recommed getting one. They are, quite possibly, the most comfortable things you can put on your feet in the summer. Buy some at Amazon.

Mysterious X&Y

2005-06-13T17:25:00.000-04:00

There seems to be some DaVinci Code level mystery surrounding the cover art of Coldplay's latest album, X&Y. My favorite explanation so far is this, from Marcus du Sautoy writing for The Guardian. Via Design Observer.

If you don’t want me to spoil the excitement of working out Coldplay’s new album cover, look away now. First, the colours are irrelevant. The cover translates the album title into a binary code where each block of colour represents a 1 and a gap 0...

The first column of colours on the cover shows a black and grey block representing a 1, followed by a gap representing a zero, then three more blocks of colour giving three 1s. The first letter in Coldplay's title is the letter X. The last column gives us 10101 or the letter Y.

Scooter-parking obsessed man leaves nasty note

2005-06-12T12:02:00.000-04:00

~~I'm a dick~~ Actually This Guy is a dick
Uploaded by jeanphony on 12 Jun '05, 6.54am PST.

So I got my scooter back and less than 24 hours later This Guy left the note above on it to welcome me back to the neighborhood. Nice, huh. He wants me to meet him for a "showdown at high-noon" on the newyorkscooters Yahoo Group. Get a fucking life, dude.

The thing that gets me is that he made the effort to actually go home , type it up, print it out, and return with some scotch tape to stick it to my scoot. Wow. I can just picture him storming down the street with his little note and his little tape dispenser.

Apparently This Guy does this all the time. check this out. He even used the same font and color (ooohh... pink is my ANGRY color.) For more laughs, check out this thread on Yahoo groups, or this one.

Amphicar

2005-06-11T12:34:00.000-04:00

There was one of these ~~boats~~ ~~cars~~ contraptions in my hometown when I was just a youngster. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I did my best to talk my dad into buying one for the family so we could cross the Savannah River wherever we wanted instead of using the bridge. Via We make money not art.

Pity the fool

2005-06-08T21:03:00.000-04:00

This sounds fun. Greg Rivera's “I Pity The Dolls!: A Collection of Contemporary and Vintage Mr. T Dolls” opens tomorrow at Orchard Street Art Gallery on the Lower East Side.

"I Pity The Doll!" features over 150 handmade vintage Mr. T Dolls that were all the rage (a la Cabbage Patch Kids) back in the '80s. In addition to Greg’s collection of vintage dolls, the show features dolls designed by a group of some of our favorite comtemporary artists including Magmo the Destroyer, MCA of Evil Design, Ssur, 360 Toy Group Freaklub, and the BA Team.

Seen on NY1 between diaper changes. Quote above from Wooster Collective.

Atlantic Art Walk

2005-06-07T21:00:00.000-04:00

It never fails. Whenever I go out of town, there is some kind of festival on Atlantic Avenue. Via Cool Hunting by way of Brownstoner .

p.s. I hate the name "Bococa."

Ebbets was here

2005-06-07T20:36:00.000-04:00

On Thursday of last week I went out to get a couple new tires for the car (gotta be safe what with the new addition to the family and all). To kill time while waiting for the service manager to upsell me 4 new tires, a realignment, and a brake job, I walked around the neighborhood and took a few photos. While walking, I stumbled on the apartment complex above. It didn't strike me at first, but then I did a little digging, and it turns out that it's not just named after Ebbet's field, it's on the former site!

So, if you find yourself roaming around Brooklyn one day, and you have time to kill, roam on over to 55 Sullivan Place, squint your eyes, and imagine what it must have been like to have our own Major League team just two blocks from the Prospect Park subway stop in Flatbush.

If it's cool enough for him...

2005-06-01T22:55:00.000-04:00

Today, I wore a ~~sling~~ baby carrier in public for the first time.

I've been wearing it (and the kid) around the house for the last few days, but I just hadn't gotten up the nerve to go outside wearing something as questionably masculine as a ~~sling~~ baby carrier. I've always thought they were more or less mom-specific unless they were brightly-colored and had a North Face logo on (you know... for men). But I sucked it up and wore it simply because it's the most comfortable baby transport device I've used so far. Masculinity be damned!

Imagine my delight when I got home to find the above pics and this Daddy Types post on Stephen Malkmus wearing the same ~~sling~~ baby carrier to a recent gallery opening. That's him on the right, by the way.

To bolster my own self-opinion, I'm going to say that this isn't simply another example of fatherhood turning a rock star into a big ol' wuss. Instead, let's say it's an example of what a trend-setting guy I really am :)

Plenty Capable

2005-05-31T13:19:00.000-04:00

Hilarious
Uploaded by jeanphony on 31 May '05, 8.27am PST.

This is by far the funniest thing I've seen in a while. The next time President Bush is giving a press conference, as he did today in the Rose Garden, follow these instructions and hilarity will ensue.
1) turn off the sound and turn on the closed captioning.
2) Imagine your favorite Saturday Night Live impersonator's voice.
3) Laugh out loud when passages like this go scrolling by:

"What you're seeing is a group of frustrated and desperate people who kill innocent life and we obviously mourn the loss of every life, but I believe the Iraqi government is plenty capable of dealing with them."

Kazakhstan's Spaceship Junkyard

2005-05-30T14:55:00.000-04:00

Lovely photo essay of space debris landing in rural Russia and being repurposed by the locals.

All space-bound rockets consist largely of fuel tanks and booster stages that fall back to earth when spent, never reaching orbit. In landlocked Baikonur, Russia's primary launching complex in Kazakhstan, these spaceships crash to earth. This photo essay visits the areas where the supporting rockets land, and shows the people living under the flight paths who contend with flaming spaceship wrecks several times each month.

Read more and see the photographs at EurasiaNet.org. Via del.icio.us/Moment.

The picture of everything

2005-05-28T16:11:00.000-04:00

It's just what it sounds like...

"It all started in 1997 when I began doing a drawing of Spider-Man. This led to a drawing of other super heroes from Marvel and DC around him in the picture. Soon I had Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Spawn and The Hulk and was quickly thinking of more..." by comic artist and satirist, Howard Hallis

The Picture of Everything via WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

Political Compass

2005-05-24T08:56:00.000-04:00

If you know me, you know I love my 2x2s. Here's an exercise for you to map your political attitudes against social and economic axes, and find the world leaders you most identify with. After you take the quiz at politicalcompass.org, feel free to check and see where I netted out. You'll find my 2x2 here.

Evan's birthday news

2005-05-24T08:22:00.000-04:00

Evan's birthday news
Uploaded by jeanphony on 24 May '05, 5.01am PST.

Marumushi's newsmap for the day Evan was born. One day maybe he'll be glad I saved this.

Welcome Evan

2005-05-24T07:58:00.000-04:00

Evan, day 5
Uploaded by jeanphony on 22 May '05, 11.16pm PST.

I think the picture says it all.

Vesparade

2005-05-12T18:06:00.000-04:00

A rolling Vespa ~~parade~~ PR event hit Times Square on May 10. It was sponsored by Piaggio USA to celebrate Vespa's 60th anniversary and the launch of its newest model - the LX. Apparantly Vespa trucked in LOTS of LX models and put non-local riders up at a great NYC hotel for the occasion. Check out Scoot.net for more pics, or read a little deeper here. Via Urbannerd.com.

Exped.icio.us

2005-05-12T12:03:00.000-04:00

Exped.icio.us
Uploaded by jeanphony on 12 May '05, 8.55am PST.

This new offering from extisp.icio.us displays random Yahoo images search results for each of tag word in your del.icio.us tags. It's an interesting idea. See the full visualization of our studio's tags here

Farrakhan on Atlantic Ave.

2005-05-07T19:33:00.000-04:00

Nation of Islam leader, The Reverend Louis Farrakhan, just gave a speech across the street at the House of the Lord Pentacostal Church. See an early report of the story here.

'It's Peter Max's Cars, Man!'

2005-05-02T15:49:00.000-04:00

Somewhere in Brooklyn... a garage full of corvettes owned by Peter Max.

“Suddenly I see my Peter Max Corvettes coming out onto a football field with cheerleaders on top. There are 60,000 people cheering, screaming. A guy in front of me is screaming to the guy behind me—he’s holding a frankfurter and mustard is dripping down his sleeve, I see this in my dream—he’s screaming right at me, looking through me,

‘It’s Peter Max’s cars, man!’

See the rest of the story here.

Training wheels

2005-05-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

Clever and beautiful design for a learning bike / tricycle from an Industrial Design Professor at Purdue and two of his students.

"Shim, an assistant professor of industrial design, said he and his two collaborators came up with the idea while brainstorming a concept to enter in the 9th International Bicycle Design Competition in Taipei, Taiwan.

He and recent Purdue design graduates Matthew Grossman and Ryan Lightbody traded childhood memories of looking back frantically at their father or mother after they sent them on their way on initial solo rides.

'That was the common thing — looking back to see if your dad is holding your seat, and having that fear of crashing or falling all the time while you're riding,' said Shim, an assistant professor of industrial design whose 4-year-old son is at the tricycle stage.

'So we thought if we could make a tricycle kind of bicycle, it would get that burden off the child's shoulders so he or she could focus on trying to learn to ride.'

The key to their bike, which resembles a trike with crooked wheels while at rest, is a belt with a spring mechanism that pulls the rear wheels inward."

See more of the story here.

Gotham III scooter rally

2005-04-29T12:57:00.000-04:00

Update: check out the NY Times story on the rally here.

The Gotham III rally is in town with a full schedule of events running from Thursday, April 28 to Sunday, May 1. For times and dates see this schedule, and also check out this birds eye video of the ride leaving Vespa Soho earlier today.

Hammond's Ferry

2005-04-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

Hammond's Ferry
Uploaded by jeanphony on 25 Apr '05, 8.49am PST.

New development in the town where I grew up... it's been a long time coming. The site is a beautiful area, just adjacent to the Savannah River in North Augusta, SC. The firm responsible for the planning is Dover, Kohl & Partners. Conceptual sketches of the "new" North Augusta can be downloaded from their site here. More information can be found on the Hammond's Ferry marketing site that the developer, Leyland Alliance, has created. Here's the schpiel from the Winter 2004 newsletter of Augusta Tomorrow, an organization claiming to be a champion of downtown (re)development.

The City of North Augusta, in partnership with Leyland Alliance of Tuxedo, New York and Civitas of Charleston, South Carolina, is preparing to commence work in 2004 on the redevelopment of 200 acres along the Savannah River in an organized and well-designed effort to re-link the city with its river-front. Hammond’s Ferry, named for the ferry operated by LeRoy and John Hammond in the mid-1700’s linking South Carolina to Georgia, effectively is a simple extension ofthe existing downtown street net-work of North Augusta. It will offer a mixed-use traditional scaled residential and town center of over 800 single-familyhomes, condominiums and apartments with awide range of affordability. The riverfront portion, extending approximately one mile from the Thirteenth Street Bridge west, will encompass a riverfront park, open to the entire area, and linked by the existing North Augusta Greenway Trail system. Conceived with vernacular historical architecture, Hammond’s Ferry will seamlessly connect the city to its roots along the Savannah River. This extraordinary endeavor will link to the city via the existing streets laid out more than 100 years ago.

This is truly disturbing

2005-04-25T01:05:00.000-04:00

A plastic replica of an 12 week old fetus holding a firearm. The "ornament" is encased in a translucent plastic globe and features a yellow ribbon on top. It is for sale via Miss Poppy. Via Daddy Types.

Pyramid or Pie?

2005-04-24T21:41:00.000-04:00

Update: see a parody of this at MyPyramid.org.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has introduced a revised food pyramid. This $2.5 million cornucopia of mixed visual metaphors is described as a "customized, interactive food guidance system." Nice. Check this NY Times article for more or My Pyramid to find the flavor that's right for you. Via Dad Talk.

Smash a piece of history

2005-04-19T16:58:00.000-04:00

IIT is hosting an eBay auction... the winner gets to break a window out of S.R. Crown Hall, one of the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe- designed National Historic Landmark building on IIT's campus. The May 17, 2005 “Smash Bash” is part of the kickoff for the historic renovation of the building and coincides with the launch of its 50th anniversary celebration. Seems like a good way to take out your frustration with modernism in general, or with IIT in particular. See the auction here.

Stolen Recovered

2005-04-19T16:51:00.000-04:00

Update: It has been recovered! Much thanks to Nicholas at BrooklynBretta!

Vespa
Uploaded by jeanphony on 19 Apr '05, 11.26am PST.

My scoot was stolen on Sunday in BROAD DAYLIGHT.

The thieves were spotted cutting the lock off with a torch Sunday afternoon between 3:00pm and 4:00pm in front of the Olde Goode Things Antique store at 400 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Three guys and a welding truck. The main thief talked to the people in the store. The thief said he'd been "away at school" and he was "really glad his bike was still there."

~~More info posted at scoot.net/stolen~~.

I want it I bought it

2005-04-16T09:38:00.000-04:00

Update 2: I couldn't wait until June, so I broke down and bought the D70 kit on sale from One Call.

Update 1: It's been officially announced! The U.S. release date is early June. Via Gizmodo

The rumored Nikon D 50 is being released on April 20 (according to this awkward translation of an Italian Digital Photography site). Read it here. Via Engadget.

Struwwelpeter

2005-04-12T19:29:00.000-04:00

I'm going to see Shockheaded Peter on Thursday night, the 14th. I was blown away by the Tiger Lillies in concert at Mass Moca on Halloween 2003, so I'm really looking forward to the full-on stage production. I'll write more about it afterwards, but for now, read this review. Picture via Nothing is True.

Homesick

2005-04-10T20:52:00.000-04:00

Not that I'm a golfer, but watching the Master's Tournament makes me a little homesick for Augusta every year. See more, including lots of lovely pictures like the one above (taken by Jon McGaha, Westford, MA) in the patron photo archive on Augusta.com's site for the 2005 Master's Tournament.

Memory maps

2005-04-08T08:06:00.000-04:00

Weaverville
Uploaded by jeanphony on 17 Apr '05, 6.33am PST.

The latest trend on Flickr, kicked into high gear by the creation of a new group pool called Memory Maps, is to capture a Google Map satellite overlay of a place from your past and annotate the image with personal stories. Cool, huh? My contributions, the image above and a revision of the Terraserver neighborhood image, Belvedere, that I originally posted in November. Sharing is caring. Via Pixies.ca and Caterina Fake.

Update: Now Wired has a story on Surprising things in Satellite Imagery, here.

Our buddy, Matt... The futurist.

2005-04-07T12:02:00.000-04:00

"Matt Marcus, head of the consulting firm Segue in Chicago, lists "experience forecasting" among his services, and yet he also dislikes being known as a futurist. "It connotes that you know something that others don't about what's going to happen," he says. "And when is it that you decide you're a futurist—do you wake up one day and feel it?" See more here.

Radioactive Waste Storage?

2005-04-06T15:32:00.000-04:00

Three Mile Island
Uploaded by jeanphony on 7 Nov '04, 4.29pm PST.

Between the Lines, an alternative news magazine web site, is using my photo of Three Mile Island (above) to illustrate a story on Radioactive Waste Storage at Power Plants. Read the full story, Critics Question Safety of Radioactive Waste Storage at Power Plants and Proposed Repositories. (scroll down)

Funny and sad

2005-04-06T00:51:00.000-04:00

Definitely the geekiest thing I've seen in quite a while. See more here.

Nursery of Death

2005-03-22T17:51:00.000-05:00

State of the art baby products circa 1971. Linda Causey (A Perfect World) bought an old Sears catalog from 1971 at an estate sale, scanned the contents, and put them up on her website. See more here. Via Blogging Baby.

Roo

2005-03-14T13:41:00.000-05:00

Roo
Uploaded by jeanphony on 14 Mar '05, 10.05am PST.

Just returned from Australia... It was beautiful! See this and other photos from the trip in my Australia Flickr set.

59th and Central Park South

2005-02-25T01:40:00.000-05:00

59th and Central Park South
Uploaded by whileseated on 23 Feb '05, 3.07pm PST.

Vista

2005-02-23T22:40:00.000-05:00

Vista
Uploaded by jeanphony on 23 Feb '05, 7.24pm PST.

Pleats

2005-02-23T22:39:00.000-05:00

Pleats
Uploaded by jeanphony on 23 Feb '05, 7.25pm PST.

Baby Name Voyager

2005-02-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

Baby Name Voyager
Uploaded by jeanphony on 9 Feb '05, 1.41pm PST.

This is one of the nicest visualizations I've seen in a while, and not just because I'm preoccupied with the topic either. Go to Baby Name Voyager to see more. Via Daddy Types.

Ulm Stool

2005-01-28T16:06:00.000-05:00

A favorite of mine, in reissue. In 1954, Max Bill and Hans Gugelot designed this stool/table for use in the newly-founded Ulm Academy of Design. It is now being reproduced by Vitra Design Museum. Buy one here.

Blizzard

2005-01-24T19:01:00.000-05:00

From the front page of the NY Times... We're still digging out too, but we didn't get it this bad. Read the story behind the photo here. Registration required.

Huygens images from Titan

2005-01-17T14:04:00.000-05:00

Huygens successfully touched down and transmitted to Cassini for 70 minutes on Friday. The image above was one of the first color images received.

This is not CG

2005-01-17T11:14:00.000-05:00

Images shot at Tokyo's grand G-Cams project. The amazing this is that this is real, not CG. via Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting

Southerlyn departs Law & Order

2005-01-13T17:13:00.000-05:00

Another departure from one of my favorite shows... with an interesting twist. via Gothamist

Sweet condo on the market

2005-01-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

Interesting sounding condo in a historic Clinton Hill property, the Graham Home for Old Ladies. More on the history of the building here and here. Btw - Clinton Hill is one of the hottest neighborhoods in Brooklyn according to this New York Times story. Listing on Craig's List.

Addendum... another unit for sale in the same building, via Corcoran's web site and the floor plan of the Craig's List posting.

Tsunami survivor

2005-01-12T14:25:00.000-05:00

Amazing stories of tsumani survival continue to come in. See more on Ari Afrizal who lived for nearly two weeks at sea by eating coconuts on this raft. Guardian story.

More Red Hook Demolition photos

2005-01-05T13:13:00.000-05:00

A few photos of IKEA's progress in demolishing a Red Hook warehouse. See more here on Lex's Folly. via Curbed.

Land Art

2005-01-05T01:24:00.000-05:00

Several monumental works of art in the desert southwest are nearly complete. Read more here. via this post in Land & Living.

Waterfront Brooklyn Park

2005-01-05T01:03:00.000-05:00

Illustrations of the development plans for the Brooklyn waterfront have been released. Read more here. via Curbed.

You really have to try it

2005-01-05T00:35:00.000-05:00

Vietnamese Sandwich (yum)
Uploaded by jeanphony on 3 Jan '05, 12.11pm PST.

The best $2.50 you'll ever spend at lunchtime... at the corner of Lafayette and Grand.

IKEA Destroying Five Historic Red Hook Props

2005-01-04T23:56:00.000-05:00

IKEA is currently demolishing five Civil War era Red Hook properties to make way for their parking lot. Read more here. via brownstoner.

Protein Calendar

2004-12-17T13:36:00.000-05:00

I may need this for christmas... I'm pretty sure I do.
[Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting]

Democracy in Ukraine

2004-12-06T21:21:00.000-05:00

Spotted on Social Design Notes

Reliance Building

2004-11-19T13:57:00.000-05:00

Reliance Building
Uploaded by jeanphony on 19 Nov '04, 10.44am PST.

This building, one of my favorites in Chicago now houses the Burnham Hotel named after Daniel Burnham, the architect. Completed in 1890, the Reliance Building paved the way for the modern skyscraper. It was one of the first to use a steel skeleton (which allowed much larger windows than typical construction of its day). See this article for more.

IIT McCormick Tribune Campus Center

2004-11-19T13:21:00.000-05:00

The new Rem Koolhaus building @ IIT
Uploaded by jeanphony on 19 Nov '04, 7.37am PST.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but we just had to drive by and see the new building on the way back to Midway yesterday. It's shocking to see it there among all the Mies.

On Ice

2004-11-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

On Ice
Uploaded by jeanphony on 16 Nov '04, 6.46pm PST.

Saturday is my 6 month wedding anniversary. This photo was taken on the trip Rebecca and I got engaged. If you haven't heard of the IceHotel, you should definitely check it out.

Belvedere

2004-11-12T17:26:00.000-05:00

Belvedere
Uploaded by jeanphony on 12 Nov '04, 2.23pm PST.

This is the neighborhood where I grew up... I snagged this photo from Terraserver.

Giant Sand @ Southpaw

2004-11-12T10:33:00.000-05:00

Summer(93)
Uploaded by jeanphony on 12 Nov '04, 7.22am PST.

Seen last night... one of my favorite bands, Giant Sand, touring to support their newest album, All Over The Map. Very good show. Check out Blue Marble Girl for a sample of Howe's solo work.

Our work for Bryant Park

2004-11-11T01:27:00.000-05:00

Law & Order 1
Uploaded by jeanphony on 5 Nov '04, 8.06am PST.

We designed the new identity for Bryant Park you see in the background on this epidode of Law & Order. We also just received an honorable mention in this non-profit design contest for our design of their web site.

Inside the bean

2004-11-08T11:39:00.000-05:00

Inside the bean
Uploaded by jeanphony on 8 Nov '04, 8.36am PST.

The Bean

2004-11-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

The Bean
Uploaded by jeanphony on 8 Nov '04, 8.37am PST.

Commentary?

2004-11-08T09:37:00.000-05:00

Commentary?
Uploaded by jeanphony on 7 Nov '04, 4.29pm PST.

Seen on the beach on Staten Island