March 28, 2012
Perhaps my favourite digital art piece, Ben Rubin’s San José Semaphore. Photo by Peter Elst.
From Ben Rubin’s Vimeo:
“San José Semaphore, by artist Ben Rubin, is a permanent public artwork commissioned by Adobe Systems Incorporated in collaboration with the City of San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affair’s Public Art Program.
March 27, 2012
Am tired of the Shit_____Says meme, but do look at Shit Vivienne Westwood Says anyway. It’s via the green fashion site Ecouterre. A few samples from it are reproduced here.
March 18, 2012
Words and music by John Roby, a good friend of my Uncle Patrick. Video recorded and edited by Scott Stephenson. Lovely song in its own right, and a bit reminiscent of Randy Newman and Tom Lehrer.
February 29, 2012
India has the best inventory of vintage and antique furniture—both institutional and domestic—I’ve ever seen. Especially deco and moderne (bench above) not to mention traditional Indian wooden furniture of various vintages.
I love you, Vancouver. Environmentalist David Suzuki, University Chair Andrew Petter, Activist Jim Green and other Vancouver luminaries in a funny & also really touching PSA.
RIP Jim Green, defender of the poor, a Vancouver icon, one of the greats.
February 21, 2012
This is a poor photo of a very interesting bottle, despite the fact that the boy running this soda cart in Mysore was being super helpful. (Below, some clearer photos of this type of bottle, courtesy of Wikipedia.) This is known as the Codd-neck bottle and you can read a full history and explanation below, but in short, the bottle is sealed via the use of a glass marble held in place by the pressure of the aerated soda; pressing the marble down either with a thumb or wooden plunger releases the seal, dropping the marble into the curved cavity and allowing the soda to pour out.
February 20, 2012
Hodgepodge of beautiful lamps seen in India, most of them vintage.
The glass, the hardware, even the wiring seem more attractive in India than they are in North America, and often have more design integrity.
February 17, 2012
If you are the type who notices recurring patterns, and like me are not from the Indian subcontinent or Central Asia yourself, you would start to notice a common concentric diamond pattern if you spent time in India.
February 16, 2012
This ant, seen at a roadside restaurant near the border of Goa and Maharashtra States in India, appeared at our table the moment the condensation did. There’s a famous quote from Diana Vreeland that hot pink is the navy blue of India, but that’s equally true of orange—human, animal and mineral.
February 14, 2012
This is a hodgepodge of painted walls in India, where I have been travelling for the past five weeks. All of these are in South India (Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa). The buildings are generally made of laterite stone sealed with cement (see previous post).
