When Laszlo Moholy-Nagy fled the Nazis in the 1930s, he lugged this bizarre contraption through customs in country after country. The Light-Space Modulator looks like a mad-science experiment and sounds like a time machine, but it helped pioneer digital design.
The Washington Post’s Monica Hesse rounds up the year in viral videos. Among her picks are a Scientology promotional video featuring actor Tom Cruise, Will.I.Am’s “Yes We Can” clip in support of then-presidential contender Barack Obama and footage testing whether cell phones can actually pop corn.
Bartle Bogle shop Zag is staking out new ground in the agency world with entrepreneurial efforts such as Mrs. O, a fashion blog that offers users the chance to purchase fashions just like those worn by incoming first lady Michelle Obama. Zag’s strategic director Ben Jenkins said, “Zag is about creating the properties ourselves from scratch and having 100 percent of it.”
01.03.09 | Advertising - Ad Agencies Create and Market Their Own Brands - NYTimes.com
“Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.”
“Matisyahu deployed what may be the only large, mirrored, rotating dreidel in show business — a Jewish answer to a disco ball — at Webster Hall on Sunday night, the first night of Hanukkah. It was also the first of eight New York City shows for Matisyahu in his third annual Festival of Lights series, bringing different opening acts and guests each night. A large menorah was set up for a mid-concert lighting ceremony, with the blessings declaimed in Hebrew by an audience volunteer.”
12.24.08 | Music Review - Matisyahu - A Kosher-Pop Reggae Hanukkah at Webster Hall - NYTimes.com
“Spec ads, unofficial, proposed advertisements to ad agencies, restore our faith in the little guy in the big bad world of advertising - the creative, “regular dude” who actually sits down to his or her computer and bangs out an ad so much better than anything the suits could dream up.”
“The glut of news leaves people overloaded and thus no better informed, a study finds. “The irony in news fatigue is that these consumers felt helpless to change their news consumption at a time when they have more control and choice than ever before.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams,” according to one of the most-emailed stories on the NY Times site today. The writer also argues that George Bailey is mean to his wife and Pottersville is much more fun than boring old Bedford Falls.”
“A new UK study shows that fans of romantic comedies have unrealistic expectations of relationships and often have trouble communicating with their partners. Rom-com fans are more likely to believe that love is predestined, that if a person is meant to be with you they will know what you want without you telling them, and that sex with the right person will always be perfect. John Cusack, Meg Ryan, Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock: you’re all on notice.”
Four books released in the 1960s and 70s changed the way people saw our soon to be media-obsessed world. Penguin’s re-released them for a new generation, and they’re just as relevant as ever. YES Design took on the job of redesiging them, using a popular 60s font that reminds one of New Directions’ books of modernist poetry. “They manage to look very smart and slightly kooky at the same time.”
“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.”
I’ve never been comfortable”—he grabs a sheet of white paper, uncaps his pen, and starts whorling in black ink—“doing Frank Gehry. I would never suppose that someone would look at my sketch and go, Aaahhhhhhhhhh. No wonder architecture’s dead—because that’s what everyone thinks architecture is now. When Calatrava and Gehry die, it’s done—no one’s gonna pay us to do that. So it’s terrifying for me to look at schools trying to bring out your personal vision.”
12.15.08 | Joshua Prince-Ramus - Best Modernist Architecture - Esquire
Most cosmologists believe that our universe emerged from a singularity during the Big Bang. But now physicists are exploring the possibility that our universe was created by the death of an earlier universe.
12.12.08 | Did our cosmos exist before the big bang? - space - 10 December 2008 - New Scientist
“A month or so ago, The Brothers Bloom trailer charmed me with its Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or Shooting Fish caper by way of Wes Anderson feel, because I’m a sucker for that kind of movie. Somehow I forgot to post it then, so here it is now, aged but still worth spending two minutes with, like grandma. It’s by the guy who did Brick! I was so ready to let this movie kiss me come January. Now I apparently have to wait even longer. Writer/director Rian Johnson has confirmed on his message board that the film has been pushed back to May:”
12.12.08 | Rian’s Forum :: View topic - New Release Date - May 29th
