Visual Aid

Stuff You've Forgotten, Things You Never Thought You Knew and Lessons You Didn't Quite Get Around to Learning. Picked up this book last weekend thinking it'd make a great Xmas gift. The simple colorful graphics are great and illustrate the facts well. However, couldn't figure out how to make the newspaper boat! Well, maybe I'll keep it for myself!

Todd Selby

The Selby, personal side project of photographer Todd Selby, features photographs, paintings and videos of interesting people and their creative spaces. It's quite a voluminous study of beautiful spacial textures and their inhabitants that tell vast unspoken stories. It's a delightful browse.

Sexy People

The Sexy People blog is a self proclaimed “Celebration of the Perfect Portrait”. Vintage studio photography lets one walk down a memory lane that many wish was no longer on the map. If you are brave enough you can submit your own photos for the critique.

Return to Forever

Back in the early 70s Chick Corea set out on a quest to break ground on a new sound spawned from avant garde jazz and birthed by Miles Davis. The new sound was dubbed 'jazz fusion' and Corea helmed the multi-talented group known as Return to Forever. With a revolving lineup they kicked out a handful of studio albums, and the best, in my opinion, was Where Have I Known You Before with Corea on keys, Stanley Clark - bass, Lenny White - drums, and Al Di Meola - guitar.

Just watch this live performance of Vulcan Worlds and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Is Pink Floyd Too Loud?

On the top of my Christmas list this year is the complete, penultimate 40th Anniversary Pink Floyd box set, Oh By The Way – available only in Europe. The minisite is a nice music player where you can listen to samples from the albums. The Dark Side rainbow doubles as a sound visualizer - nice.

Also, don't miss checking out this rare video of the Floyd performing Astronomy Domine at Queen Elizabeth Hall. I especially like how Hans Keller, the interviewer, says he doesn't "want to prejudice you", yet it's so obvious he absolutely hates them.

Syd & Marty Krofft

Land of the Lost, Family Affair, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Pink Lady and Jeff, The Krofft Supershow, Bigfoot and Wildboy, The Brady Bunch Hour, Wonderbug, Dr. Shrinker, Donny & Marie (aka The Osmond Family Show), Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Bugaloos, & H.R. Pufnstuf.

Whew!

The two brothers behind the genius of these visually saturated programs that shaped so many TV-glued minds in the 70s, such as my own, are featured in this great series of interviews from the Archive of American Television. The tension between the two is great – such opposite personalities. The chemistry was obviously gold.

Hint. Don't miss getting your personally autographed LOTL picture of Chaka or Holly here!

Juxtaposed: Religion

I discovered this clever piece by San Francisco based designers Mike and Maaike a while back and was curious to see if this limited edition piece was still available. And it still is.

"Juxtaposed: Religion" brings together and presents the world’s most influential religious texts on the same level — acknowledging and celebrating their coexistence. 5,084,000,000 people, 5,360 pages, 3,700 years, 243 countries, 7 books, 1 shelf. Nice.

Shami, Towel or Sponge?

Has anyone else seen this infomercial for the ShamWow? I've never felt such a strong impulse to pick up the phone and give my credit card number to the person on the other end than after seeing it for the first time.

The best part is Vince's Brooklyn accent delivering fabulous one liners such as...

"Why do you want to work twice as hard?", "You know the Germans always make good stuff", "Ya follow me camera guy?", "Shamwow, you'll sayin' wow every time."

How could you not trust a guy wearin' a headset?

Flash Face

Just try it. Fun for hours. OK, minutes.

1st 100 Days

The folks over at good.is printed this pretty great infographic illustrating the accomplishments during the first 100 days of a dozen of the most ground-breaking presidents. All eyes are on our new president-elect to see what sweeping changes he'll make during his first outing.

The Hidden and Unfamiliar

In her latest book "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar", photographer Taryn Simon documents spaces that are integral to America’s foundation, mythology and daily functioning, but remain inaccessible or unknown to a public audience. This index examines subjects in rare sites that, while provocative or controversial, are currently legal. Simon's photography investigates such domains as science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security and religion.

Pictured above is encapsulated nuclear waste stored at Hanford Site in Washington State. Submerged in a pool of water in this U.S. Department of Energy site are 1,936 stainless-steel nuclear-waste capsules, estimated to be the most radioactivity under one roof in the United States.

The blue glow is created by the Cherenkov Effect which describes the electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle, giving off energy, moves faster than light through a transparent medium.

Copenhagen’s First Contemporary High-Rise

The municipality of Rødovre, announced today that Sky Village by MVRDV and co-architect ADEPT winner of the design competition of the Rødovre Skyscraper. The 116 meter tall tower accommodates apartments, a hotel, retail and offices. A public park and a plaza are also part of the privately funded scheme.

Got Gas?

The Shelby Black Hornet created specifically for Carroll Shelby from a stock 1968 Mustang, is now being auctioned off by none other than Restoration Hardware to benefit the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation. Identical to the Green Hornet Shelby GT500, this masterpiece offers a Cobra Jet 428 V8 engine producing 335 hp, Edelbrook aluminum heads, a top-loader 4-speed transmission, power steering, power brakes, Shelby 10-spoke wheels, and instant classic car cred. Bidding starts at $100,000.

Mad Driving Skills

Check out this insane driving demonstration with run-of-the-mill Hyundai sedans. The music by Yanni tops it off nicely.

This is some serious driving. 360º spin turns, reverse 360º spin turns, 540º turns, side parking, choreographed snake runs, and jumping! At one point, a guy even changes out a tire while in two wheel motion. Crazy!

Flash Art

Erik Natzke is using Adobe Flash to create his art. He showed the above piece at Wired magazine’s NextFest. He has a page on flickr that showcases the many prints that he has for sale.