Street Art

Last years "clean city" legislation in São Paulo, Brazil stripped billboards clean, leaving the city in an artistic drought. For at least a year people's heads have been caught downwards instead of up thanks to a few enterprising young artists who post under the Fotolog name 6memeia. They have been beautifying the city’s storm sewer openings with cute and clever cartoon paintings.

The Bloody Olive

Here is a very creative and fun Christmas short. It is about ten minutes long, but definitely worth the watch.

A Different Perspective of New York

In the New York Botanical Gardens they have their annual holiday train show. It is in it's 17th year. The exhibit features all major attributes of New York including notable buildings and bridges. Each is made from branches of a variety of woods including oak, hickory and elm, and willow. Lights also frost the exhibit. Also running through the sappy town are several trains. It is an amazing exhibit and I wish I was there to see it.

Dotted!

If you haven't heard of the creative Yayoi Kusama, here is your chance.  I came across her today and became instantly fascinated. She is a Japanese artists. Her paintings, collages, soft sculptures, performance art and environmental installations all share an obsession with repetition, pattern, and accumulation which is quite evident below. She describes herself as an "obsessive artist".  She is also a published novelist and poet as well as creating notable work in film and fashion design. On November 12th of this year, Christies New York sold a work by her for $5,100,000, which is a record for a living female artist.

Two Albums and an EP!

Kanye West, The Killers, and Coldplay all released new music today. I've been waiting for the Kanye West album, 808's & Heartbreak, ever since I heard the single "Love Lockdown." I had heard The Killers' new single "Human," but did not realize that their album, Day & Age, was going to be released today. The biggest surprise was Coldplay's release of a new EP called Prospekts March. This is especially exciting after just seeing them on Saturday! The EP consists of a few remixes of songs from Viva La Vida including a version of "Lost" featuring Jay-Z. There are a few new songs as well. The EP is $5.99 on iTunes and includes a special music video of Viva La Vida that is really funny.

Viva La Vida

The two of us had the amazing opportunity to see Coldplay in concert for their Viva La Vida tour.  It was by far one of the highlights of our mortal existence! They put on a fabulous show. Chris Martin is our personal hero! Our seats were far away, but we went down for a closer look and as you can see from the pictures got very close.  The performance was quality with exceptionally sound acoustics, brilliant lighting, as well as cutting edge editing on live footage projected with HD projectors on to large screens.  Thank you Coldplay!

  

 

Perfect Symmetry

I finally got the new Keane album, Perfect Symmetry.  It came out earlier this month.  I have given it a few listens and it is moderate thus far.  There are a few songs that I love already. Others, I'm not so excited about.  They added a lot of electronics and sometimes it works really well and other times not so much.  The vocal abilities of Tom Chaplin are still exceptional.  But the music behind the voice isn't as great as it is in their first album, Hopes and Fears.  It still worth a listen though.  Here is one of my favorite songs so far:

Again and Again.mp3

Jump for Lacoste!

I ran across these amazing Lacoste ads.  The first few are Lacoste's current line for Fall/Winter. The others are from last season.  Very fun.  Check IT out.

Carnival of Light!

Out of the hundreds of Beatles' songs, one still lives unknown.  It is the mythical unreleased song know as Carnival of Light.  It is a 14 minute experimental track that was recorded at the height of the Beatles' experiments with psychedelia in 1967.  Paul McCartney confirmed that he still owned the master tapes.  He states that the time has come for it to get its moment. It has only been played once publicly for an event called The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave. Some have listened to it including Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn.  He Listened to the song in 1987 while compiling his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. He said the song included "distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds, a distorted lead guitar, the sound of a church organ, various effects (water gargling was one) and, perhaps most intimidating of all, John Lennon and McCartney screaming dementedly and bawling aloud random phrases like 'Are you alright?' and 'Barcelona!' Unfortunately, nothing is definite.  McCartney would still need to get the consent of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, as well as George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, to release the track. Let us all hope that they agree so that we might relive the magic of Beatle-Mania!

Jeff Kulak

I came across this very cool illustrator - Jeff Kulak. He does a lot of work for different magazines. He is very creative. Check IT out.

CS4

The new Adobe Creative Suite is now here - CS4. There are a lot new features. Check IT out.

New Planet!

NASA's Hubble Telescope has taken the first snapshot of a planet, called Fomalhaut b, circling another star! It is estimated close to three times Jupiter's mass. It orbits the star Fomalhaut. It is approximately 25 light-years away. This is so fascinating the discoveries that we make.

In, Up, Down, Out!

Here is a very creative way to direct traffic in parking garages. It reminds me of the side walk chalk post.