the museum of online museums

from the museum of online museums:

here, you will find links from our archives to online collections and exhibits covering a vast array of interests and obsessions: start with a review of classic art and architecture, and graduate to the study of mundane (and sometimes bizarre) objects elevated to art by their numbers, juxtaposition, or passion of the collector.

the brain trust over at coudal partners (the same genius outfit that produces field tested books, among other things) have compiled fragments of mania both magnanimous and myopic in their museum of online museums. it's a good place to waste a day, and admission's free.

bruce bickford [animation]

i know! that's how i felt after i watched it the first time! (watch the video.)



as adjectives go, meticulous doesn't quite do bruce bickford's work justice. bickford, who has lived and worked from his parents' basement his whole life and is sometimes known as mr. b, is something of a daniel johnston-type cult icon (minus the emotional breakdown). bickford is an animator who works in clay and line, and also crafts some amazingly delicate paper sculptures. renowned as an expert in clay-animation, bickford remains slightly infamous for his work with frank zappa in the 70s. at present, bickford is said to be working on multiple projects, including castle 2001, a feature-length film that is to be animated using 3D characters made out of paper. the video above is taken from an award-winning documentary that bright eye pictures made about bickford a few years ago called monster road. reminds me of the good old days of sesame street and 3-2-1 contact!

LINK: npr interview with bickford

blocked in china

maybe this ought to come as no surprise, but fellow milwaukee expat fred d. in beijing has brought it to my attention that sentencelessness is blocked in china! who knew that episodic chatter, some kitschy photos and a few mp3s would do the trick?

chicago daily news 1902-1933 [photography]

this is the best way i've found to waste an afternoon in months.

DOWNLOAD: the mountain goats - this year (live in SF) [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: the mountain goats - you or your memory (demo) [mp3]

dylan + cash :: 1969 sessions [music]

DOWNLOADS: christmas come early. (via aquarium drunkard)

this is my milwaukee [hijinks]

this could be a good old fashioned snipe hunt, a lark. in fact, it most certainly is, in one way or another. if your "what the...?" is sufficiently perked, start by going to the this is my milwaukee page. if you find yourself still hooked, join the milieu and get into one of the many discussions being had by gumshoes all over the interweb.

UPDATE!: breaking news/clues, more discussion

BABL: jjjjound

from jjjjound:

The blog posts will have no titles.
The photos will be random.
No text either.
Just great photos.
(BTW, this is going to be your favorite blog)

jef aerosol [street art]

i'm a sucker for anybody who'll expend the necessary energy to cut a stencil of a pouty, school-boyish woody allen. jef aerosol is a street artist in the vein of banksy with considerably less political mien. aerosol's focus on quality, despite graffiti's temporary nature, makes his work stand apart from the rest of the noise of heavily-tagged walls by giving a nod to the bemused delinquency inherent to graffiti.

LINK: jef aerosol at streetsy
LINK: flickr

i am the walrus [video]

daniel arnold [writing // friends]

*disclaimer: this is the biggest gaffe i've made on my blog to date. i wrote this post about a week ago and was interrupted while linking and tinkering. i thought i had posted it, but it has been sitting in my box as a draft.*

i'm not going to get long-winded on this for two reasons: 1) daniel arnold is a humble guy, and 2) daniel's adjectives are better than mine and i don't want to do him a disservice. the fact is, daniel arnold is an informed soul - informed about what, i won't say (he's got his own blog for that). but daniel is also a friend. and a writer. point being, daniel's writing speaks for itself, and, accordingly, some big things are happening for him. not terribly far removed from a hunter s. type excursion in big sur, daniel got it down in nouns and adjectives that the dudes at the fader liked so much they featured it on their on-line hub, F2. you should read it.

DOWNLOAD: f2 the new folk podcast // f2 text [pdf]
(photo by sam macon)

doritos s.w.a.t. [video // friends]

coeur de pirate [music]

it has been said that the word nice has been rendered meaningless by decades of overuse. i hereby present the music of coeur de pirate as article #1 in the case for the resuscitation of the term. rcrdlbl has about all you need to know about the little lady.

DOWNLOAD: coeur de pirate - comme des enfants [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: coeur de pirate - c'etait salement romantique [mp3]

(thanks m.)

nonconfrontations [hijinks]

from www.anonymouspostcard.org:

anonymous postcard is designed to allow anyone to openly communicate to a third party without the complications of personal contact. after being vetted by our staff of experts, claims that reflect the civic spirit of the project will be transformed into vague and largely indecipherable postcards and mailed towards the intended recipient.

anonymous postcard is to your unresolved gripes what postsecret is to the skeleton in your closet.

for the love of words

from hamlet (that tragic avenger):

Lord Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
Lord Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Lord Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

(Hamlet II, ii, 191-195)

words confound and obfuscate at least as often as they elucidate or decree, which is why they're fun. alphabet juice is roy blount, jr.'s new study of sorts on the quirks, quarks and quartos of the english language as we now think we know it. blount, who has penned a fair bit more bathroom reading than actual theory, here provides a case-by-case discussion of the changeling nature of many english usages. while history and evolution support the bulk of blount's pontifications, he also brazenly ponders the validity, humor, and coincidence of such phenomena as onomatopoeia and the kinesthetic nature of the sound, sight, or meaning of a given word. first chapter below.

LINK: first chapter of alphabet juice from nytimes // npr
LINK: more word dorkiness (thanks andrew)

new york times special edition [hijinks]

did anyone get one of these!?!? the new york times is claiming that "a film promoter, three unnamed times employees and steven lambert, an art professor", are behind the prank, and gawker says the yes men are involved. wednesday's new york times spoof - a 14-page mock up of the july 4, 2009 edition - apparently included distribution of more than 1,000,000 printed copies in various major cities during peak morning commute hours. read the online doppelganger of the times here; read the (real) times' first reaction here. if anyone has a copy i can have or can get me a copy, please do.

LINK: hilarious thomas friedman column

amy casey [art]

i caught amy casey's painting a short time back on my love... and it nearly slipped through the cracks of my faulty, well-intended memory.

jentri colello [music]

from the a.v. club/the onion:

Colello's voice flickers and hints at melodies--rough and weathered in one direction, fluid and vulnerable in the other--but never puts her larynx on parade. As pretty and understated as these songs are, a chilly unease pervades them.

jentri colello does a fair dose of little bit country, little bit rock and roll. hailing cornfed from mostly-overrated madison, wisconsin, colello's music might be what it would sound like if neil young's neighbor and cat power's sister got together and talked about the people they know.

LINK: muzzle of bees interview
DOWNLOAD: jentri colello - daisies [mp3]

(thanks to j. bear for the heads up.)

BABL: we have lasers!

we have lasers! is all about your fourth grade dreams and aspirations, complete with turtlenecks, feathered bangs, and side ponytails. a visit to lasers will as likely get you musing on playground crushes as stewing about "the rich kids" whose pogoballs and new kids on the block t-shirts you feigned apathy about.

free is free

this bodes well for you. the kind hearted folks over at world cafe on npr music have begun opening their massive live in-studio archives and are offering a free weekly download. you must become their email slave for their world cafe e-news to receive the download.

DOWNLOAD: lykke li - little bit [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: buddy guy - out in the woods [mp3]

BABL: la blogotheque

this isn't new, it's just really...je ne sais quoi? face the facts: the french continue to seem like jerks (mostly because you don't speak french), and you continue to aspire to the noir they exude. be that as it may, all your favorite bands get hyped by and do arty videos for this gang of enfants français. if you go here and ask google nicely, they will traduire from the french. and now i'll stop with the french as kitsch bit. other favorites: fleet foxes // bowerbirds

LINK: if you liked that, blah blah blah
LINK: lykke li + bon iver

sexy kids [music]

sisters. everybody's got one, and from my experience, you can't shake 'em. that's one of the many simple truths that glasgow's sexy kids wax poppy about. sexy kids are another dancy/fuzzy band that make you want to do that awkward kind of almost-dancing that feels so wrongright when you're wearing your favorite cardigan and there's a cute girl by your side. that ought to be all the reasons you need to let them be part of your friday soundtrack. [photo by some jerk at the bar. love you, emmer.]

DOWNLOAD: sexy kids - sisters are forever [mp3]
LINK: slumberland records

voting [photography]

*click photo

LINK: one ballot...

reading the nominees

everyone has their own deal-makers and -breakers. for my money, the books on your coffee table and shelves can say at least as much about your social lean and character as your beer of choice says about your frugality and palate. this topic has floated around elsewhere in the recent past (see links below), but on friday the new york times prefaced a profile of both mccain and obama's favorite books with some entertaining presidential literary history. while there are certainly some shiny, predictable standbys on both lists, there are also a few interesting surprises. i really want to leave this without the fingerprint of my opinion as a discussion point, but if you fish around here, you might find my two cents.

LINK: all candidates (hufpo, 01/08)
LINK: w. (the new yorker, 01/06)

rancor and indifference

before i wandered as a diversion. now i wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion.