In case you missed it, on Tuesday this week Stephen Colbert put together a little mock footage of himself in his so-called past to poke fun at ‘Papa Bear’ Bill O’Reilly’s Inside Edition meltdown. I was laughing pretty hard when I saw this. You just gotta love Stephen Colbert. The guy is hilarious and he always looks like he is having a blast on his show.
I couldn’t find much info on this, so just appreciate it for what it is. If you happen to be walking the streets of Chitown, try not to land on this luxury tax.
Great find via Apartment Therapy Chicago.
I guess this video has been around a while but it is hilarious and worth a post. Geez Bill, relax man, you’re going to give yourself a heart attack.
I thought this might provide a nice break from all the politics and craziness going on.
I really have no words for this. Awesomeness maybe? Is that a word?
I read a piece of news today at Animal New York that really concerned me. There really is no concrete truth behind the allegation but some news has leaked that Frank Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant fame may be losing his sight. Fairey has diabetes and has been spinning records under the name DJ Diabetic for some time now. Animal New York makes the claim that a source close to Fairey has stated that he could be legally blind by the end of the year.
The article goes on to quote the anonymous source as saying, “That’s why he’s having so many gallery shows and making so many prints. The Faireys are trying to pump out as much artwork as they can before he can’t see anymore - time is running out.”
There is already speculation that this news could raise the price of Fairey’s work. It seems to me that this news is somewhat unfounded and to be speculating about something like that is at the expense of Fairey and his family. I know a lot of negativity has spread about this particular artist and his practices, but he still has arguably more fans than detractors. It saddens me to see people speculating the price of his work going up because of something so sad happening to him.
From people I have spoken to in the past who have met Fairey, I have heard he is a very nice person. He has a wife and family, and I am sure if any of this news is actually true, it must be very hard on his family. It’s easy to forget that when someone has created such visible work that there is actually a real human being propping it up. If any of this is true, my heart goes out to him and his family and I sincerely hope he manages to stay well and fend this off.
News discovered at Animal New York.
Writer Matthew Newton, who recently interviewed me for his weekly ongoing Made You Look column has an interview with French 3D artist, Zamak this week. His work has generated a lot of buzz online in the last few weeks so it might be worth popping by Matthew’s site to read the interview. Zamak’s work is inarguably one-of-a-kind.
Old Gregg is one of those rare internet phenomenons that has seemed to sweep and firmly stake it’s claim in online culture. I even saw people dressed as Old Gregg for Halloween this last year in Denver. It’s something that kind of runs through our office every once in a while and gets everyone all fired up. It’s just so damn weird that you can’t really ignore it. It’s not the kind of thing that could ever happen on stuck-up conservative American television either and I think that has a lot to do with why young people, specifically in the U.S. just can’t seem to get enough of Old Gregg.
Anyway, I could try to explain it myself but Wikipedia has already done a better job than I could ever do so here is the information from Wiki copied directly from their entry on Old Gregg:
“Old Gregg is a fictional character portrayed by Noel Fielding. He was created for the “The Legend of Old Gregg“, a 2005 episode of the TV series, The Mighty Boosh. He later went on to appear in the 2006 stage show, The Mighty Boosh. The name of the character is derived from an incident where a friend of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding’s, while at a festival in the middle of the night, heard someone yelling “I’m Old Gregg!”.[18]
Old Gregg is a transsexual merman who occasionally refers to his vagina, which emits a blinding light, as his “mangina.” He inhabits a cave below the lake in a village called Black Lake.[19][20] Old Gregg is fond of Baileys Irish Cream, as well as being a keen watercolour painter.[19] He owns The Funk, an extraterrestrial covered in teats which lactates liquid Funk.[19] Old Gregg is in love with Howard Moon; singing a song with him entitled “Love Games”, chronicling his obsession and Howard’s reluctance, and later proposing to Howard.[21] A deleted scene from “The Legend of Old Gregg” documents many rumours about Old Gregg, including his cannibalistic nature, and his age at over 1,200 years old.[22]
Old Gregg is first seen in the 2005 episode, “The Legend of Old Gregg” in which he meets and falls in love with Howard; who is then rescued by Vince. Old Gregg then joins Howard in the 2006 stage show, after tracking him down and having himself delivered in a box, where they sing a rendition of “Love Games” and are later seen kissing.[5] Old Gregg last appeared in deleted scene from the 2007 episode, “Party“, disguised as a woman who has taken a liking to Howard.[23]“
You can read about the program “The Mighty Boosh” at Wikipedia and find all you need to know about Old Gregg there as well. Just scroll down to ‘G’.
I had to post this on a Friday. It’s the perfect Friday blog entry. Enjoy. I love Old Gregg.
The ‘Refacing Government Tender‘ series on Flickr just killed me. Someone went in and refaced 1, 5, 10 and 20 dollar bills with drawings over the faces of the presidents on the bills. It’s a brilliant idea and the results are hilarious.
Every once in a while you read a story that makes your jaw go slack. Well, here is one of those served up just for you.
Back in the late ’90s, pop-culture aficionado Bill Geerhart, was unemployed but still had a lot of twisted ideas running through his mind. So, out of sheer curiosity he decided to launch a letter-writing campaign to some of the most infamous people in the country. The catch you ask? He posed himself as a curious 10-year-old boy named Billy.
Surprisingly responses poured in from the likes of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Oprah Winfrey, Janet Reno, Judge Clarence Thomas, Larry Flynt, Arnold Schwarznegger, Charles Manson and Richard Ramirez (the night stalker).
Apparently the convicted killers all responded promptly with letters ranging from sensible to not surprisinginly, criminally insane.
Radar Magazine recently asked Geerhart to send follow up notes and yet again many of the correspondents replied promptly. You can read the rest of the story here at Radars website and you can also skip straight ahead to the letters here.
When I was a kid, I spent hours battling my friends at Risk. I’ve never really been a big board game player, but I never once minded spending hours playing Risk against friends. I was pretty young, so I didn’t recognize a number of the countries and I’m pretty sure the original Risk map was a bit not with the times (on purpose of course).
A long overdue redesign has taking place, and it’s a thing of beauty. I won’t go into too many details about the game play, but feel free to read the rule changes at Gamerswithjobs.com.
Here’s the quick rundown…
The basic game mechanics have been left unchanged. You still deploy “troops” (in this case, little colored markers) to territories across a world map. You still attack your neighbors and defend against aggressors by rolling dice. And you still get cards, which you can cash in to get troop reinforcements. But the new rules offer two major improvements: Objectives and a revamped resource system.
As for the art…
Art director Lindsay Braun completely overhauled the Risk look, and now the game is - dare I say - sexy. Sophisticated. Modern. With clean lines and crisp black and gray themes, the game board looks more like something you’d put in your 360 than on your dinner table, and the rulebook looks as if it were ripped from some military commander’s field notes. This new art is hip, smart and inviting.
Unfortunately, the new look is for promotional purposes only (only 1,000 were made and sent to media, game blogs, etc.) but a redesign is scheduled to hit stores this year. As for whether or not people like the new game, according to Joystiq, it’s a hit.
The response was unanimously positive. The updates to the rules — handled by Risk 2010Risk). Most media attention, however, was lavished on the slick, modern redesign, devised under the command of art director Lindsay Braun and visual designer Jason Taylor.
Risk has always wanted to be taken seriously, but Black Ops is the first version of the game to look deadly serious. A matte black finish on the box is accented by imagery of barbed wire, dog tags, and the faintest hint of blood spatter, all rendered in a subtle gray. “History is written by the victors,” the box declares in a modest sans-serif font. The game board itself is designed to look like something out of our modern war-rooms, with a visual style not unlike Introversion’s apocalyptic strategy game Defcon. This is not the Risk you remember. Designer Rob Daviau — lower the game’s initial barrier to entry, and make it possible to play through in under two hours (which is significant for
Photo from Joystiq.
This is a little anecdotal, not exactly design related but a friend pointed this video out to me the other day and it totally fried my brain. It runs on a little long but this kid must have spent about 8 hours a day for a year practicing this routine. I don’t know whether to cheer for him or cry for him.
Alright this is completely and totally non-design or world news related but sometimes you see something do damn crazy you just have to mention it out of sheer amazement. I swear I have watched the above animated gif about a hundred times and I still, for the life of me, just cannot figure out how it is humanly possible. Those guys must have practiced that about a million times before they were able to pull it off. Crazy.
A coworker was kind enough to send this my way today. The geniuses behind one of my favorite television shows ever, Southpark, have launched a site that is still in beta mode where you can watch every episode for free.
Better still, you can also create a Southpark Avatar of yourself. You just gotta love the internet.
I just stumbled across this post on Geekologie about rejected Star Wars Promotional Products and had to link it. There is just too much good stuff in there to ignore. I would totally have purchased a Death Star grill. How could that possibly have been rejected for mass production? What a shame.
You can see the first page of rejected concepts here and the second here.
There is a strange trend emerging on the internet where a lot of bloggers don’t want to reveal their sources. I think this can be attributed to the spirit of business competition, as blogging is more and more becoming considered an actual small business venture. When things turn business, no one wants to advertise for the competition. I check numerous blogs everyday and use a lot of what I find to help me get the information I decide to put on my blog. I think most bloggers do. Of course I receive emails as well, but the best stuff happening out their is happening in the blogosphere, all bullshit aside. I am out there pounding the virtual pavement day and night for what I fill my blog with. Call it cherry-picking, I don’t really care. Some of my favorites include, Computer Love, FFFFound, Formfiftyfive and Aisle One. To me blogging is a new form of news broadcasting, and when things go out over the wire, we bloggers decide what we think is appropriate to broadcast for our audience. If you don’t like it or you think someone is doing it better, you can always change the channel. There is after all, a hell of a lot more of them to choose from now on the internet than the television.
I have discovered one recently though, that I just have to share and shout out loud. It is just so quirky and fun that I always end up finding something funny there that helps make my day a little more light. It’s called Made In England By Gentleman, and it is just always a pleasure to browse. So go there and enjoy it because I do, and you should share what makes you happy, not hide it.
Check out this very intimate John Malkovich interview. Enough said.
The description of the unique and totally radical Vintage Science Flickr image pool is as follows:
“Remember those oh-so-dated science books from back in the day? No? Well, here’s your chance to check ‘em out. Images from science books of the ’40’s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. This also includes children’s books that have a science theme to them, like space,, astronauts, chemistry, physics, etc. Even books that feature what the future could be like, as long as it’s presented as fact (or what they thought might be fact).”
I love this kind of stuff and was totally psyched to find another group of like-minded strangers who shared my nerdy sentiment.
There’s some really nice work coming out of Miami, specifically from MAP Magazine.
MAP Magazine is a unique quarterly publication fusing intelligent content and progressive design to reflect the relevance of Miami as an emerging cultural mecca.
MAP stands for music, art and people and covers cultural issues, showcases talented artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, designers and chefs and covers everything that is design. I’ve been checking out their interactive page-turning website and downloading their free PDF issues since Issue 1 now and they’re obviously growing in the right direction.
As a Miamian living in Los Angeles, it’s nice to see some unique work coming out of the 305 and it’s a great way to be apart of the Miami cultural scene even living 3,000 miles away. But the best part of MAP is that you really don’t need to have anything to do with Miami to appreciate the design and art work coming out of the south and the cultural capitial that So. Fla has become.
