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Showing posts from April, 2016

Scott King on how Kurt Cobain's lighter changed his life

Back in 1989, former i-D magazine art director Scott King caught Kurt Cobain's lighter during Nirvana's first ever gig in Berlin. In this 18-minute short by Paul Kelly, Scott tries to find and revisit the small club where the band performed in an attempt to understand how that extraordinary event shaped his entire adult life.

This paper-craft version of Game Of Thrones' opening scene is pretty cool

To promote the launch of their new Game of Thrones notebooks , Moleskine has released a video of the show's iconic opening sequence, recreated using 7,600 paper cutouts. All notebooks feature beautiful cover designs, each with a different house - House Lannister, House Stark (two different designs), and House Targaryen. Essential for unexpected journeys, adventures, and encounters with vicious White Walkers. Thanks to Macoy for the alert!

Barcelona has the world's most elegant cannabis museum

In the heart of Barcelona's Ciutat Vella ("old city") sits the world's most beautiful marijuana museum. It's a 15th-century palace acquired in 2002 by Dutch entrepreneur Ben Dronkers, who spent the next ten years renovating the mansion. The Hash, Marihuana Cáñamo & Hemp Museum opened its doors to public in 2012, and weed aficionados can dive into a huge collection of artifacts related to cannabis cultivation and utilization.  There are paintings, sculptures, photographs and posters for art lovers; while science enthusiasts can explore the room that holds one of the world's largest collections of medicinal cannabis bottles, apothecary kits and prescription vials. The museum also exhibits antique smoking pipes, pre-war machinery once used to process hemp, and other pot-related paraphernalia.  For everyone with a trip booked to Catalonia, this museum is a must-see.

Incredibly realistic paintings of moshers by Dan Witz

Dan Witz is a talented artist from Brooklyn, New York who paints people and things with meticulous accuracy. The level of realism in his paintings is pretty darned amazing, and his mosh pit series accurately captures the chaos and energy of moshing music fans. Mosh pits were quite popular in the 90's and, during my teenage years, kids basically kick the living shit out of each other. I wonder if people still do that? Visit Dan's website  for more photorealistic art.

R.I.P. Purple One

The doves are crying right now. There will be a ton of tribute shows. I will surely be on one of them.

Michael Keaton builds a fast food empire in 'The Founder'

Michael Keaton is enjoying something of a renaissance in his career. Spotlight won Best Picture at the recent Academy Awards. Last year Birdman was Best Picture. Could this be his third consecutive Oscar-winning film?

'SexLife' by Stefan Georgiou

Having a baby is a beautiful, life-changing experience. But no matter how you love your precious tot, caring for an infant can be a serious obstacle to hooking up. This is the focus of Stefan Georgiou's film SexLife , which was originally written by Kefi Chadwick as a theatrical piece for the Edinburgh Festival. The 15-minute short centers on Mia (Jemima Rooper) and Dan (Dylan Edwards), a young London couple who haven't had sex since before the birth of their son. In an attempt to get his partner into bed, Dan dresses as Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show . It's hilarious, emotional, and charming in its honesty. Check it out below. [h/t: Short of the Week ]

Gruesome diabetes ads feature wounds made of confectionery

Imagine sitting down to enjoy a bar of chocolate when all of a sudden you see one of these 'Sweet Kills' posters. They're made by Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok for the Diabetes Association of Thailand, and I think they're quite disgusting. The campaign features different body parts covered in ghastly wounds to convey the devastating side effects of too much sugar. The twist? The blood and cuts are made out of sweets. Scroll down for more gruesome images. [h/t: Visual News ]

Take the 'Ambiancé' challenge

Most people will tell you that three hours is too long for a movie. But if you're free for the next seven hours and you're up for a challenge, try watching this grueling trailer for the longest film ever made. It's actually a 'teaser', because in 2018 the director will release a full-length trailer of 72 hours. Ambiancé , an experimental film by Anders Weberg, will premiere in 2020 and will run for 720 hours non-stop. That's right, a movie with a running time of 30 straight days — and you thought Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis felt long? The film's set in Sweden and features two performance artists on a beach. It's described on IMDb as a documentary where "space and time is intertwined into a surreal dream-like journey beyond places and is an abstract nonlinear narrative summary of Weberg's time spent with the moving image." I don't know what that means but it sounds really boring. So without further ado, here's the 7-hour 20-minute t

This app connected couch can morph into any piece of furniture you need

Lift-Bit is a shape-shifting sofa that can be controlled via an app. It's comprised of individual honeycomb-shaped stools that are motorized and can be moved around to create various seating positions. Say, for example, you're chilling and you want to use your laptop, you can easily raise one of the stools to serve as a table for the device. If you're having a shindig, you can easily remove seats so your friends will have more space to get their groove on. Designed by Carlo Ratti for Swiss furniture company Vitra, Lift-Bit is currently a prototype, but stools can be pre-ordered for $900 each . Sofa of the future? Too expensive if you ask me. [h/t: Wired ]

Michelangelo's Tuscan villa could be yours for just over $8 million

If you want to convert your cash into a piece of art history, there's a beautiful Tuscan villa that once belonged to Michelangelo, for sale for $8.4 million. According to an article in Hyperallergic , the Florentine master bought the nearly 13,000-square-foot estate in 1549, about 30 years after he completed painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The luxurious villa is surrounded by the vineyards of Chianti, with views of Tuscany's majestic hills. There's also an olive grove, a lemon orchard, as well as the original olive oil mill. Inside the home, there are eight bedrooms and seven bathrooms, along with several original features, such as the huge original kitchen fireplace, wood-beamed ceilings and 70 percent of the original Renaissance-era terra-cotta floors. Michelangelo's family sold the estate in 1867, and since then it has only been on the market three times. Not only will the new residents be able to brag they are living in a house once

These gorgeous candle holders give new meaning to 'The Burning City'

I would totally welcome these candle holders into my home. They're elegant, they're modern, and I guess they're pricey. Designed by Ukrainian architect and interior designer Sergey Gotvyansky , the collection was inspired by the creation of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine's third largest city and industrial center. [h/t: jocundist ]

Underbridge Homeless Jesus

This remarkable piece of work was crafted by two Polish badasses – painter and street artist Daniel Kalinski aka Chazme , and sculptor Tomasz Górnicki. Installed under a bridge in Warsaw, Underbridge Homeless Jesus was positioned in such a way that it becomes illuminated by natural light coming from above. The use of simple materials is quite unusual for the depiction of Christ's figure, a subject usually crafted in luxurious metals, like bronze and gold. The sculpture also poses a challenge to its viewers. Does its simplicity change the way we now see the image? Can we still regard him as the Son of God? [h/t: Urbanite ] 

Weird oil paintings by Erik Thor Sandberg

There's no denying that Erik Thor Sandberg's main aim is to shock and surprise. His work has always been about his incursions into a grotesque, alternate world, at once fascinating and horrifying. Erik's art, which I discovered through Desert Island , is a heady mix of sex, violence, and romance (sort of) that "questions and attempts to define "human identity (and scraps thereof)".  Discover more of Erik's creative work on his website .

Vintage-style map of Mars 

If you're into astronomy, cartography, and art, this map is an absolute delight. It's a scientifically-accurate medieval-style map of Mars, hand-drawn by Seattle-based illustrator Eleanor Lutz. It's called Here There Be Robots , a reference to the myth that cartographers from the Middle Ages would write "here be dragons" in areas that were unexplored. "Recently I've been really into old maps made by medieval explorers," writes Eleanor on her blog . "I thought it would be fun to use their historical design style to illustrate our current adventures into unexplored territory." She completed the map by using data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), which includes topographic imagery from NASA, and cartography from the USGS Astrogeology Science Center. I really like the map's old time-y appeal. The Red Planet has never looked more otherworldly. [h/t: Nerdist ]

Handmade glitch carpets by Faig Ahmed

Digital errors can sometimes create oddly beautiful effects in photos. But these are not glitched images, these are actual carpets created by Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed. His handmade rugs appear to have been pixelated, stretched, melted, or otherwise distorted.  In order to create these illusions, Ahmed takes traditional Azerbaijani rugs, un-weaves them, and re-articulates the original designs. "Initially, they called me a crazy man and wouldn't accept my idea,"  he tells Danna Lorch of ArtSlant . "They thought I was being disrespectful of our customs. Then I explained that centuries ago people created what we now think of as our classic carpet designs through the same kind of innovations." Check out some of my favorite pieces below or head over to Ahmed's website for the full selection.

Elle Fanning unleashes her dark side in 'The Neon Demon'

Admit it, you fantasize about Elle Fanning occasionally. It's okay, she's 18 now.

This pizza box transforms into a weed pipe

If you're using pot on a regular basis, then you probably already know that pizza is one of the best foods to eat when you're stoned. Weed and pizza go hand in hand, that's why the creators of the Push For Pizza app launched a clever box to combine these two together.  It's pretty simple. The box has a small detachable cardboard flap, which users can then easily roll into a pipe. There's also a stand in the center of the box, which doubles as the bowl. Currently, there are no plans for mass production, but that could change based on how well the design is received by the public. Isn't it time we start to get some of this stuff in the Philippines? [h/t: Elite Daily ]

Saddam's former palace is being turned into a museum

There's a lot going on this September, including the opening of a new museum in Iraq. It's a former palace once owned by Saddam Hussein, and will be the first museum to open in the country for decades. According to a report in National Geographic , the mansion will be split into several galleries that will showcase objects from different periods of Iraq's history including ancient Sumer, Babylon and Assyria. The project costs about $3.5 million, was partly funded by oil companies, and will feature at least 3,500 artifacts. No word yet if the gold finished fittings inside the bathrooms will be included in the exhibition.