Category: Art

Posted on

Gothamitis: Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik in Conversation

Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik in Conversation

The Design Trust Council held their inaugural event last Wednesday in the Founders Room at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink) was joined by fellow New Yorker magazine writer Adam Gopnik(Through the Children’s Gate, Paris to the Moon), in an entertaining and provocative conversation titled “Gothamitis.”

Gladwell and Gopnik, both keen observers of New York civic life, each relate different perspectives on “Gothamitis” what current development trends mean for the soul of New York City.

Listen to the entire conversation (116.5mb mp3), along with audience questions via Design Trust’s blog, I ♥ Public Space.

Email me if you’d like a copy of the mp3, I still have a copy on my old hard drive

Posted on

Disneyland Resort Paris Freebies

The Disneyland Resort Paris music site is offering used to offer free downloads of music from the park. The songs are available for two weeks and then rotated.

I’ll be interested if they offer any music from the attractions themselves or just area music. A while ago I started searching for some Pirates of the Caribbean music, but so far my search has been unsuccessful. Hopefully I’ll be able to find it here. (Yup, I got them)

Remember that you’ll have to unzip the files and enter the password they give you (www.dlrpmusic.com) but the downloads are free. You can also find more downloads in the bonus section.

Oh, and a word of warning, they have background music that plays automatically, ala webdesign 1996, but at least there is a stop button to turn it off.

(Leave me a comment if you’re looking for these files, I might still have a copy somewhere)

Posted on

The Kurds of Northern Iraq

During a seven-week stay in 2005 in Iraq, photojournalist Ed Kashi captured thousands of images that were used in this interesting flip-book style animation, “Iraqi Kurdistan“.

Iraqi Kurdistan is an expansive look into the daily lives of the Kurdish people of northern Iraq. These images provide an alternative perspective on a changing culture, one different from the destruction and discord that dominates so much media coverage of the region.

Here are policemen seated on the floor, eating lunch and laughing, old men taking care of their fields and young girls celebrating at a suburban birthday party.

There is also hardship and tribulation, to be sure; the Iraqi Kurds endured generations of brutality under Saddam Hussein. His genocidal campaigns cost close to 200,000 lives. But as Iraqi Kurdistan documents, the region is mostly peaceful today. The people enjoy more autonomy and women’s rights continue to grow stronger.

Very compelling on a social studies level, but also I also found the images themselves to be fantastic—they are not only beautiful but also capable of stirring a variety of emotions.

I had a hunch he was using a Canon 5D and though I’m still not 100% sure, I saw the Canon logo in one of the photos with a mirror in it. I would love to get myself one of those.

Posted on

Dirty Car Art

Scott Wade uses paint-brushes and his fingers to paint incredibly detailed art-scenes in the dust that accumulates on the back window of his car.

Dirty Car Window

Dirty Car Window with Artwork

Dirty Car Window with Dogs Playing Poker

This reproduction of Dogs Playing Poker is one of my favorites.

Like any reasonably creative and curious human, Scott can’t resist a dirty rear car window. We suspect that Scott started off with clever sayings, like, “wash me.” Probably his first image was the ubiquitous smiley face. Unlike most folks however, Scott lives on a mile and a half of dirt road—caliche, as the locals call it, road-base: a blend of limestone dust and gravel and clay. Driving over this surface results in a fine, white dust that billows up behind any vehicle driven faster than a galloping turtle, coating the rear window. Being an experienced artist (and let’s face it, a little… different), it wasn’t long before Scott was experimenting with techniques to achieve these amazingly detailed and shaded drawings.

Check out the gallery at Dirty Car Art. If you, like me, need to see it to believe it also check out the media section for videos and interviews.