Lunchmeat Underpants
New Stuff and Inspiration
From Bauhaus to Target.
Yesterday I went to Target to look for an area rug. Granted, my expectations were pretty low. I was bowled over by the selection. Truly. Right now Target is selling rugs that are clearly designed by hand weavers. Not just your common variety hand weavers, but weavers who are inspired by the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop. That means unique structures, equality of warp and weft, nobby, furry, fibery heaven. The Bauhaus weavers aimed for a balance of durability and aesthetics. They used the loom as a jumping off point to explore the limits of what fabric means. And you can see the offspring of their efforts at Target. This is a big deal. It’s not that often that we can sing the praises of mass commercialization. This is a rare example of how manufacturing can resuscitate long lost cultural arts. Instead of dumbing down, Target is dumbing up.
Everyone is hollering about loss of diversity in corn varieties and tropical frogs. But loss of diversity in weaving structures is something that just doesn’t get much play. This blog post is my small contribution at correcting that.
Movember
Just like everyone else in the world, we at Sukle have had experiences with cancer. Cancer stinks, bigtime. So, a few of us here are participating in Movember, and we’re proud to be rocking some lip fur. Stay tuned, as we’ll update with some photos of our lovely ‘staches soon, and if you are feeling so inclined, you can donate to our team here.
Dog Shaming
If you’ve ever owned a dog, you’ve certainly walked in on something destroyed, defiled or just downright disgusting. Our fine little four-legged friends just can’t restrain themselves sometimes. And a fun little site has been born out of our canine frustrations: Dog Shaming. Dog parents are making little notes when their pooches act up and posting them on the blog. It’s a great little light read if you’re looking for a few chuckles. There’s some funny lines in there, and some even funnier, really guilty looking mongrels.
Macklemore raps about thrift stores
Macklemore of Seattle made this rap song/video. It’s hard to imagine a better ad for Goodwill.
Frank Gehry is having more fun.
I’m convinced that Frank Gehry has more fun than any architect alive today. The architect stereotype conjures up black turtlenecks, manicured fingernails, and a serious expression. I don’t know what Mr. Gehry is like as a person, but his buildings can’t possibly come from that stereotype. I like to imagine him more like a kindergarten teacher.
His new project is the Biomuseum in Latin America. It will feature species that originated in the Panamanian Isthmus.
Neon Museum
For those among us who have a soft spot for vintage lettering, and Las Vegas lore, we can now wander among some of the classic neon signs that once lit up the strip. Neon Museum opened last week in Las Vegas. The new outdoor museum has a collection of 150 Las Vegas signs from as far back as the 1930’s.
Many of these come from what Young Electric Sign Company used to call ‘the boneyard.’ The boneyard was a place where old signs used to go, not to die, but to teach. YESCO sign designers would make a mecca to the boneyard to learn from the lumbering beasts whatever they could take away about engineering, graphic design and culture. And YESCO gave numerous private tours by appointment only. It was a place where signs were revered and the importance of the signage industry on American culture was easily understood. Now, they are on display for all to see.
Why so much love for these old signs? They were designed by “craftsman from a bygone era, when people drew with pencils, heated and bent glass tubes, filled the glass with neon and argon gas, cut and shaped metal and fiberglass, and then hoisted larger-than-life tableaus onto buildings and above roads filled with men and women who were falling in love with cars.” NYT
“Several fonts were created and became widely used, including Atomic Age letters from the early signs of the Stardust, which was demolished in 2007.” NYT
Follow the frog
Great ‘lil vid for The Rainforest Alliance.
This is the write up on the YouTube page for this video:
You don’t have to go to the ends of the Earth to save the rainforest. Just Follow the Frog! Shop for Rainforest Alliance Certified products here: http://ow.ly/dKlao.
The Rainforest Alliance is a nonprofit conservation organization that holds Charity Navigator’s highest rating of Four Stars: http://ow.ly/ekYUy.
What’s behind the green frog seal? Only farms that meet rigorous sustainability criteria earn the right to use the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal. These criteria address all of the three pillars of sustainability — environmental protection, social equity and economic viability — and farms are evaluated by independent, third-party auditors. Learn more about Rainforest Alliance Certification and its impacts here: http://ow.ly/ekYOW.
This film was written and directed by our talented friend Max Joseph. You can follow him at http://www.facebook.com/mjosephfilm
Produced by Aaron Weber from Wander: http://www.wanderfilms.com
New book for inspiration
Every now and again you just need something cool to look at, ya know? We like to get new books, look at new art and just be dazzled by the creativity that is being produced in the world today. So today, we bought a tattoo book. For years tattoos represented gangsters, jailbirds, bikers and military men. The art was crude, the subject matter fairly similar. But today tattoo artists have elevated the art form to, well, art. We were blown away by the interesting new styles we saw in the teaser for this book and thought it’d be a great new form of inspiration for us. So we ordered it. Can’t wait to read Forever the New Tattoo.
Light painting skeletons
LA-based artist Darius Twin has taken “light painting” to a new level. Leaving the shutter open for long periods of time, it’s possible to “paint” images into the picture. Obviously, this means lots of trial and error, and also remembering where you’ve painted. Apparently this yields a slim amount of usable images, but these chosen few are really slick.
The images here are all skeleton-based, but there’s other cool stuff on his site.