Stupidfresh

I'm SO excited for my friend Aaron Meshon and his new project with KidRobot. This is a straight re-post, with permission, form the MSLK Reactions blog. They said it best so here is what they said:

Are you a fan of Aaron Meshon’s cute and clever illustrations? Have you caught the Kid Robot crush sweeping the country? If not, you are missing out. Aaron, our friend, colleague, and regular on the MSLK blog, has permanently solidified his status as world renown illustrator (at least in my mind). Aaron, was invited by Kid Robot, the worlds hottest purveys of collectible art and toys, to bring some of his quirky characters to life as 3D accessories, zipper pulls to be exact.

I’ve been a HUGE fan of the Kid Robot collectible zipper pulls, since their emergence at the 2006 Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum Triennial. The pulls come in a mystery box, an Asian phenomenon, where for a small amount of money you purchase one of their collectibles in a box knowing the designer, and/or series, you are purchasing, but not necessarily what is inside. The mystery or surprise adds to the joy of this affordable luxury and some items are rarer than others which keeps fans coming back for more.

To me zipper pulls add an engaging “practical” element to concept of a mystery box because there’s actually something you can do with the end tchatchke. Plus everything is cuter in miniature. Changes are if you spot me wearing a jacket or hoodie with a zipper a Kid Robot pull will be dangling from it.

Aaron’s creations are some of my favorite characters from his professional work over the years including, the happy pills, the ice cream cones, and buildings, all very prevalent in Aaron’s work.

I even love the packaging, and Aaron’s clever tagline, “Let’s Hang.”

I suggest hanging out with a few of these cuties quickly before they are gone, remember limited edition means while supplies last here!!

Labels: artsy

I'm cool with my level of hyperbole and gross generalization. You may not be. None of this changes the fact that this is undoubtedly the best website ever.

Thanks Marc.

Labels: artsy, music, technology

This is year two for the Infinite Regress Collective Mixtape project on Tim's blog of the same name, Infinite Regress.

The concept of how the project works is simple:

• People pick a song to cover and record to submit to the mixtape. Preferably the song would be from the last year of music (a guideline I totally missed in the 2007 mixtape when I covered a Yaz track from 1982!)
  
• Tim collects all of the cover songs people submit, and begins posting them day by day for listening and commenting.
  
• Once it's all finished up he burns them all to CDs with killer original cover art and sends them out to participants, friends and loved ones.

For me, it's a great excuse to be creative and make something for the sake of making something. What a country!

This year I decided to stay in this century and had a go with "Ready for the Floor" originally by Hot Chip. You can check the post on Infinite Regress with more description.

Here is the cover itself for your listening pleasure.

Ready For the Floor (Cover) - Lippy

I highly recommend keeping up with the daily posts on IR - they are sure to be varied, inspirational and good ol' fashioned fun.

Labels: artsy, music

Today Amanda, Jeff, Rebecca and myself participated in a game at the Come Out and Play Festival. We joined in on a game called Speed Director. In short the idea for the game is to use NYC as our backdrop to recreate 10 famous movie scenes in still photos. We were given a list of 20, but only had to do 10 and were encouraged to utilize people who were not on our team.

It was a fun and exhausting day - running around, crazy in the heat, trying to find the perfect prop or setting. What a blast!

The photos from all the teams are all being compiled on this website, which will be live after 8pm Sunday. In the meantime, our 10 shots are below - see if you can guess what movies we're trying to recreate! Click on one for a larger image.

Labels: artsy, nyc

Yesterday in the mail I received a package addressed to my home with no return address. In it was the key pictured here and a printed letter, addressed to me. The letter begins:

"You have probably already noticed that this is not an ordinary piece of correspondence. You have been selected to participate in a real-world mystery game."

It continues to explain that the item I have, in my case the key, is a clue that leads to the name of the person with the following clue, and that I need to start snooping to find out who'`s the next person, and what it all means!

The typeface on the key is slightly smudged, but as far as I can make out is spells squalloopi.

SQUALLOOPI

The letter also has a bizarre graphic at the upper left-hand corner, that turns out to be a matrix called QR code that can be decoded.

I'm conducting my own research, but so far I have come up with nothing. This is intriguing as hell, and I can use your help!

• Did you also receive a clue in the mail? Let's join forces to figure this out.
• Do you know how to read QR code?
• Any suggestions of avenues to search down for clues are welcomed!

Leave me any info in the comments section. I'll continue to post if I make any headway. Signing out - secret agent lippy

p.s. This is NOT an April Fool's related joke, like yesterday's!

Labels: artsy, rant

This one come courtesy of the Bex. She sent me this link to an amazing website that gets the ol' Rube Goldberg treatment.

Check it: http://producten.hema.nl/

Click and get ready for shiz to get live.

Labels: artsy

Please know I have procured vinyl copies of:

• "No Diggity" by Blackstreet
• "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
• and Aretha Franklin doing a soul rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

It's all incredibly correct. Hope to see you and yours tomorrow night!

The Final Countdown:
What: DJ Lippy presents Stupidfresh
When: Friday November 16th, 10pm until really late
Where: Last Exit - 136 Atlantic (Clinton/Henry)
Why: Because you need this
$: FREE!

Check below for all the graphical details. Invite any and all, the more the sweatier. Keep Bangin'...

DJ Lippy

Labels: artsy, music, nyc, rant

One more Daft Punk shot from the party...

Labels: artsy, photos

While it was another barn burner of a weekend (I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead), the highlight was most definitely the Saturday night Halloween party. We hightailed it up to Queens for the MSLK costume party.

That trip to get there is always a long one, so we decided to spice it up by traveling in our costumes. Which of course was the French robot DJs from the future, Daft Punk.

It was a blast riding the rails incognito. We also went totally non-verbal as we communicated with each other and other riders through hand signals and body language.

Other highlights of the weekend were: Darren's birthday dinner in Fort Green, dim sum in Chinatown, and catching Morrissey at the Hammerstein!

Check the slideshow below for more Halloween shots, and see you on Wednesday for the parade.

Labels: artsy, nyc, photos

It's Wednesday and I think I may still be tired from this past weekend! It was the 5th annual Open House New York festival and we did it up big. As in big-time. OHNY is a yearly event that opens the doors of some 200 sites that are normally closed to New Yorkers. The locations have an Architecture or Design bent to them, and almost all offer something interesting.

We saw 10 sites over two days, and traversed just as many neighborhoods. I won't go into all the details here, I'll let the photo set on this page do the talking. However I will indulge with a few highlights:

• We started the weekend by volunteering at a site. Not only does it feel good to give back for a change, it also feels good to get a pin that lets you cut the line at all the other locations! We were switched at the last minute to the Target Community Garden that just opened in Bed-Stuy (do-or-die, Biggie Smalls baby-baby! Uh.) The neighborhood folk were really excited about this beautiful place taking over what had been a lot "filled with crap" as one local explained to me. Nice.

• The Forbes Galleries were the biggest surprise of the weekend. Housed in the Forbes building just below 14th street, these galleries are the private collection of Malcolm Forbes' childhood relics. I have never seen so many odd things in such numbers! There were easily 5,000 toy soldiers alone, each one more mint than the last. The design of the galleries are as unique as the collection. highly recommended.

• Not a stop you'll find in the Open House event guide, but we couldn't pass up a few sesame pancake sandwiches from the Dumpling House on Eldridge. Perfect when on the go, and quite a bargain at 75 cents each!

• The last stop of the weekend was also the most impressive. We rode the tram to Roosevelt Island (see video below) for a special public art project setup on the normally off-limits south side of the island. Yes, this is the area that houses the small pox hospital that burned down. The exhibit was top-notch and the experience was thrilling.


Don't forget to check the full photo set here!

Labels: artsy, design, nyc, photos, video

The mrs. and I daydream a lot about trips we'd like to take, both long and short. In west Pennsylvania is Frank Lloyd Wright's world-famous creation Falling Water. We haven't been able to get it together to make it out that far - it's about 5 hours west of Philly.

We did get a lot closer recently when I read on Design*Sponge about this computer animation of the house and it's environs. It's an amazingly beautiful facsimile and inspires us to make it out there all the sooner.

Well done Cristobal Vila!

Labels: artsy, video

I really enjoyed this cover of The New Yorker from a few weeks ago (go ahead, click the image for a close-up. You know you want it).

Apparently, I'm not the only one. The author dissects the image on a few levels of varying depth. An interesting take, and interesting reactions in the comments section.

Link originally from Kottke.org.

Labels: artsy, rant

While were at it, another example that we are making our transition into the future is the work done by the Graffiti Research Lab.

I'm not going to preface this much, other than these graff writers are tagging whole buildings with lasers. LASERS I SAY!

Labels: artsy, technology, video

I've been flagging a ton of posts on Boing Boing "A Directory of Wonderful Things". And now, those links will be yours!

Personal vehicles on abandoned light rail tracks

Horror remix of When Harry Met Sally

Photos of people wearing fezzes

Pulp Fiction as typography

Labels: artsy, photos, technology, video

Tis the season for Design Within Reach's annual Champagne Chair design contest. The finalist's have been announced, and you can now view the entries and vote here.

In this contest, normal schmoes like you or design a miniature sitting chair using the components found at the top of a bottle of champagne. The results are astounding.

And you get to drink a bottle of champagne in the process ( I bet there are quite a few bad chairs out there)

Labels: artsy, design

So after my friend Rebecca finished up her month of bird illustrations, she has moved into the new year drawing robots! You should go check out her site: drawing-game.blogspot.com

Labels: artsy

My friend Rebecca has started a really cool project.

She calls it the Drawing Challenge Game where she is drawing 30 birds in 30 days.

Her birds are super cute and would look great anywhere on your computer. Each bird is being scanned and posted to her blog devoted to this project,
check it out.

Nice!

Labels: artsy, design

*To see the full set of photos from the 11 Spring event, head over to the photo page*

As mentioned a few days ago right here on this very site, and elsewhere, this last weekend hosted possibly the largest and most diverse showing of Street Art to date.

The abandoned building at 11 Spring Street (on the corner of Elizabeth Street) in Soho has been a touchstone for Street Artists for years. This mega-canvas has hosted work from international street art stars and local graffiti artists alike, with its walls covered in the good, the bad and the ugly .

The mysterious building has been bought recently and the developers will be turning the location into condos - no surprise there. However, the new owners are aware of the buildings artistic significance and wished to celebrate it.

After collaborating with Street Art aficionado group the Wooster Collective, a one weekend only show was conceived, setting up works by artists inside the empty building.

With camera in hand, I went to experience this moment in time.

When I arrived at 11:30 am (the doors opened at 11) the line had already snaked down Elizabeth, clear across Spring, and was about a quarter of the way down the Bowery. I lined up behind a large group of students with a few chaperones. In all, it took about two hours of shuffling along before entering the threshold to the building.

It was nice having that time to appreciate the building and its architecture from the outside - 11 Spring is huge taking up about half of that entire city block. From my starting point there were only traces of Street Art to be seen - a few tags here, some stickers there. But as I worked my way around the building the art started to creep closer. This was due, in part, to the continuing stream of artists who were installing works on the building as we waited.

The air was filled with excitement. I began chatting it up with some of my neighbors and exchanging predictions of what we would see once inside. Crowds were forming in, around and across the street. Before long, I was at the entrance. TV crews and reporters started to show. Free water was being given out. A real sense of community had developed in that short time.

Right before I passed through the entrance, a blind man and his assistant asked if they could come in and see the show. The guard let them through - and I got to catch glimpses of him as he felt his way through the show.

The first floor was overwhelming. The space was raw - wooden boards on the floor, no heat, jacked up lighting to allow some vision. Large panels covered the interior walls with imagery , painting and graffiti. I spied a larger than life version of the Street Art campaigns that cover the Walk/Don't Walk signs with miniature people that light up from the mechanics of the sign (see inset photo). I found long colored rubber bands, strung together sneaking between the floorboards above me (I would find later these extended up the fifth floor where you could still pull on the and feel their elasticity through the building. ) There were also gigantic letters that covered most of the ceiling which read: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

There were still a ton of people inside on the ground level, but many were on yet another line to go up to the above floors. The guard only let the same number of people come up that would go down, which maintained a low number of attendees on the higher floors, which was great after being shoulder to shoulder for the past few hours!

As opposed to talking through each floor and the works they contained I'll leave that to the photos. I'd rather concentrate on a feeling.

As I ascended from one floor to the next, taking my time to absorb the works that were covered everywhere (literally everywhere - stuck in the rafters, underneath the staircases, painted on the windows), I was overwhelmed with that feeling. That feeling one gets living in New York City, being a part of something that will only happen once, in this town at that time.

This is an age where there is corporate sponsorship of just about everything you can be a label on, and a city hellbent on squashing creativity in the interest of raw profits. This special "it can only happen in New York" feeling is becoming more and more rare.

On a grander scale, this was a moment for street art - a celebration for a medium that has existed outside of the law, outside of galleries and traditional methods of distribution. This is art for the people.

This is art for you.

Labels: artsy, design, nyc, photos, rant

There is only one thing you should do this weekend. This is the most important Street Art exhibition in the world, and it's only happening for the next 3 days. I'm basically freaking out.

The following is from the Nonsense weekly email (where you can get all the good dirt on what to do in NYC). Also check this New York times article (thanks Darren).

Wooster on Spring

Three-day street art mega-installation. The Candle Building on 11
Spring Street in lower Manhattan has been an ever-changing and
evolving canvas for graffiti and street artists from around the world
for decades. The new owners of the building have decided to respect
and celebrate the history of 11 Spring by allowing artists to create
work inside on all five floors, as well as the exterior. They
enlisted the help of Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective,
who have rounded up artists from around the globe for the event.
Artists have spent the past weeks creating work on all five floors
and the exterior.

The exhibition will take place for three days only after which the
building will be turned into condos. The interior work will be
entombed and the exterior blasted clean.

Also, don't forget that the SoundLab will be placing "Sonic Tags"
inside 11 Spring, so if you are in the area set you from Dec 15-17
set you transmission frequency modulation to 100.1

All weekend long we Soundlab will be broadcasting sounds live at the
event. Don't forget that we need you to help us make up the
soundsystem. Dig out your Boomboxes and handheld transistors; tune
when at the building to 100.1 on the FM dial.

Panel discussion at 3p on Sunday.

11 Spring, Manhattan
11a-5p; $free
Continues SATURDAY and SUNDAY 11a-5p
http://www.woostercollective.com

Labels: artsy, nyc

This is almost better than you could imagine it.


View this slideshow of photos from the Lucasfilm holiday party and then submit your resume to work there.

There's even a photo of Darth Vader pulling the raffle tickets. I can't imagine what the winner gets!

Link originally from BoingBoing

Labels: artsy, photos

Went last night to a Design Within Reach store to see a few of the short Eames design films. Overall the movies were great - inspirational, beautiful, and just an overall cool asthetic.

The few that stood out were:

Tops (1969, 8 minutes) Tops – many, many tops. In the words of a child who was asked to describe the story of the film: “Tops are born, they live, and then they die.” A gem, with a beautiful Elmer Bernstein score, Tops is the second in the unfinished trilogy of toy films (Shipswould have been next).

Toccata for Toy Trains (1957, 14 minutes) Vintage toy trains journey through a world of toy people, props and scenery–Toccata for Toy Trains gives a feel of immersion into the visually rich painted sets. On another level, it addresses the honest use of materials, a critical theme in the Eameses’ work, demonstrated by the clean lines and forms of the molded plywood furniture. Toccata for Toy Trainswas used to conclude the Norton lectures.

(Abstracts taken directly from the DWR Press Release)

I had some trouble tracking down footage online, but check them out if you can - the film series is travelling all over the country.

Labels: artsy, design, nyc

Last year I participated in two different "alternative" (whatever that means anymore) holiday events. I won't be free to do either this year, but want to encourage you to check these out. Both made my last December very special.

Santacon - December 16th, 10am, NYC (other dates for othe cities)

Quite simply this is where you and 500 other folks dress up like Santa Clause and go wilding in the streets of New York, not knowing where your next destination will be. It basically gives you free license to do whatever the hell you want. It is as debaucherous as you want it to be - and is non-stop fun.

Check my photos from last year's Santacon here.


Unslient Night - December 16 7pm NYC (other dates for other cities)
This is an event where you take over the streets of manhattan and blast instrumental music on boom boxes. It's all composed by this guy Phil Kline, and many of the tapes are slightly different. It makes for an amazing sound scape that sweeps therough the streets (and shuts down traffic!)

The straight dope below:

2006 Unsilent Night

Every year since 1992 I've presented Unsilent Night, an outdoor
ambient music piece for an INFINITE number of boom box tape players.
It's like a Christmas carolling party except that we don't sing, but
rather carry boom boxes, each playing a separate tape (or CD) which is
a “voice” in the piece. In effect, we become a city block long stereo
system!

In 2006 the New York event will happen on Saturday December 16th. We
will meet at the Arch in Washington Square at 6:45 pm, begin at 7 pm
and proceed eastward to Tompkins Square Park, where the piece will end
around 8 o'clock.

It would be really cool if you could join us and bring a boom box. The
more tapes we run, the bigger and more amazing the sound will be. This
past Christmas we had several hundred boomboxes and well over 1000
people total, it was really spectacular... If you'd like to do it but
don't have a boombox, I have several dozen and you can grab one...and
if you want to come and just listen, that's cool, too. Help us make a
BIG (and joyful) noise.

Questions can be directed to boombox@mindspring.com

This year there are Unsilent Nights in LA, San Francisco, San Diego,
Santa Barbara, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Asheville NC,
Milledgeville GA, Vancouver BC, Banff Alberta, White Horse Yukon,
Middlesbrough UK and Sydney Australia.

Also, this year for the first time we have an Unsilent Night MySpace
page and have Mp3s available on my website for folks who have iPods
with speakers.

Hope to see you all there,

Phil

Please support your alternative scene, and most of all have fun!

Labels: artsy, nyc

Here's the best stuff I've found (so far) today:

Song: from Music for Robots, The Gossip - Listen Up (mstrkrft remix)

Just straight up funky. For real. Press the lil' green button to listen.

Photo: from Gothamist, Light Waves in Brooklyn

"We've been admiring some gorgeous pictures of last night's start of the Prospect Park in Lights installation on Gothamist Contribute. We love this photograph by Atomische, showing ocean waters created out of lights. According to Prospect Park, "more than half a million light emitting diodes (LEDs) will be used to illuminate four gateways to the Park: Grand Army Plaza, which encompasses the historic Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch and the Bailey Fountain; Bartel-Pritchard Circle; Park Circle; and the Parkside and Ocean Avenue entrance to the Park."

Skate Deck: from turntablelab, Iron Mike

Labels: artsy, music, photos

Driving back from the Jers tonight, we saw an amazing sight from the road. A giant set of neon letters was beckoing from a huge warehouse space. As we got closer, we deciphered that it said "IN THE DARK".

We rounded the corner, bringing the warehouse right up against us and saw that the letters were also spread across the long side of the warehouse. The total message read: "IT IS GREEN THINKS NATURE EVEN IN THE DARK"



I love me some public art. The experience of seeing this form the road was thrilling and frightening. The letters were HUGE! Where did they come from? What did it mean?

A little investigation found that the artwork is called "indestructible language" and was done by Mary Ellen Carroll . The piece is a commentary on global warming and on living green. Check the info on The Precipice Alliance's webpage.

Go public art go.

Labels: artsy, design

I came across an amazing website while researching a book called "A Whole New Mind".

The book has an interesting theory: left-brain thinking has dominated our culture for the past few centuries, but due to external factors (abundance, automation of tasks and the Asian work force) right-brained thinking must now be honed in order to succeed in the coming decades.

One way to develop the artistic side of your mellon is via this Jackson Pollock website. It's surprisingly enjoyable. An insider's tip: click once to change colors.

Labels: artsy, design