Maps versus humor

My obsession with all things diagrammatic and maplike is at war with my love of funny, witty and insightful observations.  I can't decide which will win out.  Check it:

http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/my-way/

OPINION

Abstract City: My Way

By By CHRISTOPH NIEMANN

Published: March 10, 2010

Getting there from here: one artist maps out the most accurate routes for all occasions.

I'll admit, I lizzed a bit

One of the funnier websites I've seen lately. I'll admit to a bit of lizzing when I saw it.

Fuck You, Penguin

It's not just my fingers that need exercise

My brain needs work too! I just signed on for a free trial on Limosity today, and the website is pretty awesome. I think I'll spend 15 minutes each morning flexing my mental muscles. After taking a few brain tests and doing poorly on them, I sure need all the help I can get!

I wish I could paint like this

AL and I went and checked out the work of Valeri Larko one weekend in late April. She does small size studies first, and then large scale paintings. The industrial subject captured in paint is a nice juxtoposition. She told us it takes her months to finish a painting. I don't know how she does it -- it's a study in perserverance.

Love the clever riffs

in Jonathan Monk's new exhibit, Rabbit Redux, which is at Casey Kaplan until June 20.

LEGO appeals to the hipster nerd in all of us

as it rolls out Frank Lloyd Wright Collection® LEGO Architecture sets... Among them are the Guggenheim (shown below) and Fallingwater.

A.B. van der Weide

A.B. van der Weide Photography

So Cool!

It's so simple and beautiful, it's complicated!

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

OMG, he's NOT being ironic in those Priceline commercials!!!

Note column to the top right of this website

And then visit http://www.tweetingtoohard.com/. Hilarious!

Welcome to the jungle...

NYC used to be fun and games of another sort. This is what Manhattan used to look like before white people showed up...

http://digg.com/d1tJFy

Blake Lewis beatboxes Bon Jovi

I have a man crush on this guy because he can beatbox AND dance. Double threat!

The U.S. Economy as told through a game of Monopoly

From K.

Ophir Kutiel's cool funk mashups

I read about this in the New Yorker, so I decided to look it up on youtube. It's pretty cool.

This looks cool

Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West

March 29, 2009–June 8, 2009

Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West examines how photography has pictured the idea of the American West from 1850 to the present. Photography's development coincided with the exploration and the settlement of the West, and their simultaneous rise resulted in a complex association that has shaped the perception of the West's physical and social landscape to this day. For over 150 years, the image of the West has been formed and changed through a variety of photographic traditions and genres, and this exhibition considers the medium's role in shaping our collective imagination of the West.

Into the Sunset brings together over 120 photographs made by a variety of photographers. These works illustrate photography's role in popularizing ideas of the sublime landscape, Manifest Destiny, and the "land of opportunity," as well as describing a more complex vision of the West, one that addresses cultural dislocation, environmental devastation, and failed social aspirations. Organized thematically, Into the Sunset includes photographs dating from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, incorporating a range of artistic strategies, motifs, and concerns, and featuring the work of approximately seventy photographers, including Robert Adams, John Baldessari, Dorothea Lange, Timothy O'Sullivan, Cindy Sherman, Joel Sternfeld, Edward Weston, and Carleton E. Watkins. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog.

---

Organized by Eva Respini, Associate Curator, Department of Photography.

My latest obsession

...split toe socks. They're perfect for keeping my feet warm while wearing flip flops.

CKY got me a pair (pink with flowers), and I've worn them around the apartment all winter long. I'm tempted to start wearing them under my thicker socks for when I'm out and about, but I'm hesitant to cross that line. I'm worried that once I start doing that, it's a slippery slope to never throwing away newspapers, collecting plastic bags and hoarding cats.

Dahlia Soleil

I was in Williamsburg over the weekend to visit a surf shop (yes, a legit surf shop in Brooklyn), and I stopped in at Artists & Fleas where I came across the work of Dahlia Soleil. She's mostly known for her gorgeous crotchet work (esp hats), and will be a featured artist at the Studio Museum.


I got me a shirt with a bird on it similar, but not exactly like the one pictured. I like birds. I like owls.

This'll be useful for dating

Girls, rejoice. Gone are the days you're forced to have an awkwardly uncomfortable conversation with a guy who thinks he's super suave but is actually a jerk. This set of cards will do the work for you!
Order yours here.

Best episode of 30 Rock this season

For just the starting scene with the laid off investment bankers alone.

Alec Baldwin playing both Jack Donaghy and the Generalissimo totally makes it my fave epi of all time!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/56361/30-rock-confronting-the-general

Oldies but goodies

I love stories and shows that can weave historical facts into an interesting plot.

Last year, I watched New Amsterdam because the central character was 400 years old. He came to North America with the first Dutch settlers and watched the small settlement grow into today's New York City. He would get these really cool flashbacks of historical New York. There was a particularly cool sequence where he took a picture of Times Square every year and lined the pictures up on a wall so he could see how Times Square had changed over time. I thought the concept was awesome, but the show got cancelled. Most shows I really like get cancelled. I think it's an indication of how out of touch I am. (Ahem, when will they make an Arrested Development movie?!?)

This year, I've been watching Life on Mars for similar reasons. The hero in Life on Mars is a present day policeman who gets hit by a car while pursuing a suspect and wakes up to find himself in 1973 (he's actually in a coma in 2009). The show works very hard to make sure all the props are consistent with the 1970s, and the show is often shot in industrial parts of Brooklyn where signs of progress are less apparent. It's pretty cool.

Finally, I thought I'd share The New York Public Library Digital Gallery -- it's cool because you can type in a street in Manhattan, and it'll show you all archived pictures of that particular street corner over time so you can see how it's changed.

Here's a picture of a street near my apartment that was taken in 1933.

Here's a picture of what it will look like this fall once construction is done on the glass building.

Check it at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?num=72&word=13th=